Basketball as Borderlands Play: Informal Spaces as Sites of Learning and Refusal

ABSTRACT

Drawing from Anzaldúa’s (1999) ideas on borderlands, this conceptual article addresses the potential of basketball as a space for developing critical subjectivities within minoritized communities. Further, working through relevant scholarship at the intersections of race, play, education, and sports, connections are made as to how basketball is linked to place/non-place and narrative. Finally, the concept of Borderlands Play (BP) is introduced. BP is made up of agency, imagination, improvisation, and refusal.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Juan F. Carrillo

Juan F. Carrillo is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. As a cultural studies in education scholar, his research covers areas such schooling experiences of males of color, Latinx education, and the intersections of basketball and “education.” Dr. Carrillo is also the founding director of Canchas, a Mexico City-U.S. hub focused on play, learning/education, identity, and basketball. You can also find his work via the web-based series that he co-founded and co-hosts, Block Chronicles (https://www.blockchronicles.com/).