Course Correction: Abolition, Grand Strategy, and the Case Against Golf

Abstract

Historically, golf courses in the United States have been extractive institutions of exclusion—along racial, gender and class lines. Changing culturally, politically, economically, and socially embedded institutions demands more than a vague strategy or a loose and uncoordinated array of tactics. It requires what is often referred to in other contexts as grand strategy: the full alignment of values, tactics, and resources of those who wish to change that institution in the service of a long-term goal. Grand strategy with respect to institutions can take on different forms: resistance; the creation of parallel institutions; integration; reform; or abolition. This Article uses the case study of the problems posed by golf courses to explore questions of institutional change. My goal is to theorize the concept of grand strategy and embed it in our understanding of, research around, and theories of social change in ways not previously examined in this field of scholarship.

Keywords: Civil Rights, Social Change, Environmental Justice, Abolition, Golf Courses, Grand Strategy

JEL Classification: K32, K40, K11