Leveling the Field: Soccer, Farmworkers, and Citizenship in the California San Joaquin Valley

Across the San Joaquin Valley in California, the epicenter of the state's agribusiness, soccer organizations frequently engage and negotiate with political institutions and serve as public forums for civil society by bringing together assemblages of people, gathered upon their own will, who debate issues of common concern. This article demonstrates how a close examination of soccer organizational activities can elucidate some of the processes through which farmworkers become part of an active civil society by participating in the public sphere and, ultimately, stimulating novel forms of substantial citizenship. The research findings suggest that focusing the ethnographic gaze on soccer organizations in farmworker communities renders visible ongoing processes of interaction between local governments and their constituencies, in this case farmworkers, making them both more approachable partners for local development projects beyond playing soccer.