Our Sport Management Education Journal article, "Getting an Internship in the Sport Industry: The Institutionalization of Privilege," was recently awarded the journal's Best Paper Award for 2021, and is now free to read on the journal's website.
In this study, Nefertiti Walker, Kwame Agyemang, Marvin Washington, Jeffrey MacCharles, and I examine how the common practice of unpaid internships in sport privileges students on the basis of socioeconomic class, geography, and network connections. We discuss the costs of taking unpaid internships, including housing, transportation, and lost wages from forgoing paid work. We also interrogate the role that students, employers, and academic institutions play in legitimizing unpaid internships as an institutionalized practice.
As internships are viewed as a requirement for obtaining employment in the sport industry (and often, a requirement to graduate with a sport management degree), we argue that unpaid internships can impede access to working in sports for many, contributing to a lack of socioeconomic diversity in a field that is already renowned for its low pay.
Read the full study online at Sport Management Education Journal (open access).
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