Davide Sterchele

Abstract: Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Bosnia & Herzegovina, where the social, political and economical structure is clearly based on collective representations of �us� and �them�, the book reflects upon the processes that shape collective belongings and give them relevance. By exploring Bosnian football, the author tries to show the connections between the micro-sociological dimension of everyday life and the macro-sociological level of the broader national and international institutional dynamics (related to the patterns of political power and the distribution of resources). Indeed, the micro-macro connections have to be studied by observing both how macro-structures influence individual lives, on the one hand, and how everyday interactions re-produce or transform social structures and political paradigms, on the other. Empirically, the research deals with the consequences caused by the war on the social and political situation in Bosnia & Herzegovina, especially focusing on the difficulties of shaping a common sense of (national?) belonging which goes beyond the divisions based on ethnic particularisms. Theoretically, the book analyses: the ritual construction of group identities; the relationships among ritual, political power and social conflict; the sphere of leisure as an alternative public sphere with a potential political relevancy. The first chapter describes the post-war Bosnian context: ethnic divisions as instrument used by Bosnian élites in order to manage power on a particularistic basis; the international community and ethnic notables as powerful actors trying to define the Bosnian identity; the sport activities, notably soccer, as the few arenas in which the population can shape collective representations which are alternative to the dominant ones. The central part of the book (chapters 2, 3 and 4) is focused on soccer and analyses three empirical cases � the Bosnian �national� team, the united professional championship Premier Liga, and the humanitarian project Open Fun Football Schools � which show how soccer�s universal features make it a potential arena where trans-ethnic collective identities can develop. The last chapter illustrates the principal conditions under which this is possible, exploring the relationships among soccer rituals, political power and social conflict. --- Italian Abstract: Questo non è un libro sullo sport, anche se usa il calcio come terreno privilegiato di osservazione. L�attenzione è posta innanzitutto sui processi che danno forma e rilevanza alle appartenenze collettive, analizzati in un contesto come quello bosniaco in cui le rappresentazioni del «noi» assumono un ruolo fondamentale nello strutturare i rapporti di potere e nel delineare la fisionomia sociale, politica ed economica del paese. Attraverso una ricerca etnografica sul mondo del calcio bosniaco, l�Autore prende in esame le connessioni esistenti tra la dimensione micro-sociologica della vita quotidiana e il livello macro-sociologico relativo alle più ampie dinamiche istituzionali statali e internazionali, ai modelli di legittimazione del potere politico, ai criteri di allocazione delle risorse.

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Abstract: Il paradigma razionalistico ed economicistico che ha permesso lo sviluppo e l�affermazione delle moderne società industriali e post-industriali ne ha caratterizzato anche l�evoluzione politica e sociale, e tutt�oggi plasma pesantemente i modi in cui or-ganizziamo e viviamo le nostre relazioni interpersonali. Questo articolo si propone ap-punto di esplorare tali connessioni prendendo in considerazione i modi in cui la rego-lamentazione dell�uso sociale degli spazi riflette e riproduce il paradigma razionalisti-co. L�analisi si concentra in particolare sugli spazi della pratica sportiva e ludico-motoria, che costituiscono un ambito di osservazione assai fecondo per lo studio delle suddette dinamiche.

Abstract: ( http://scp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/54/2/211 ) The difficulties with interfaith dialogue are linked, at least in part, to the lack of ritual forms (consisting of rules, ceremonial idioms, liturgy, and repertoires of action) designed to unite and integrate the "meta-group "formed by the various religious communities. By means of ethnographic research conducted in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the author studies the mechanisms with which, under particular conditions, some forms of collective ritual were able to create opportunities for the re-integration of the Bosnian population, which had been profoundly divided after the terrible war of 1992�95. Comparing the forms of religious rituals and those of sports rituals�in particular, of football rituals�the author develops some considerations that can be applied to the general debate about inter-religious dialogue. The comparison brings to light some of the limits and difficulties that religious institutions encounter in giving life to an interfaith dialogue that directly and concretely involves the members of different communities. KEY WORDS: Bosnia-Herzegovina � football � inter-religious dialogue � phenomenology � ritual

Abstract: Svolta sempre meno in modo spontaneo e auto-regolato, l�attività ludico-motoria di bambine e bambini nelle nostre società altamente urbanizzate e razionalizzate viene sempre più organizzata (dagli adulti) sotto forma di pratica sportiva. Viene cioè progressivamente confinata entro spazi appositamente predisposti e modellate entro forme specifiche. Il saggio approfondisce questo tema considerandoli come occasioni per riflettere sulle dinamiche di auto ed etero-formazione che accompagnano il diventare ragazze e ragazzi. Prendendo spunto da una ricerca etnografica svolta nella città di Padova, vengono confrontate due diverse attività ludico-motorie � il calcio ricreativo giocato all�oratorio e lo skateboarding � al fine di analizzare le dinamiche di riproduzione interpretativa (Corsaro, 1997) con particolare riferimento all�organizzazione sociale degli spazi ricreativi adolescenziali come veicolo di processi socializzatori e come ambito di negoziazione nei rapporti intergenerazionali.

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Abstract: Notre point de départ est une recherche ethnographique dans laquelle nous étudions les expériences relatives à l�activité de skateboard des adolescents pour explorer les dynamiques de ce que Corsaro a nommé �reproduction interprétative�. Il n�est pas rare d�affirmer que dans nos sociétés rationalisées, les occasions données aux enfants de courir et de jouer librement ont beaucoup diminué. Des activités qui s�effectuent de moins en moins de façon spontanée, les activités ludo-moteurs, seraient de plus en plus organisées (par les adultes) sous forme de pratiques sportives. Il s�agit du processus de �sportivisation�. Cette représentation, bien qu�elle prenne en compte une partie des processus, laisse dans l�ombre d�autres moteurs sociaux qui, s�ils sont négligés, font perdre de vue une partie chargée de sens de l�expérience dans la vie quotidienne des personnes. Le processus de rationalisation s�accompagne, par exemple, de dynamiques caractérisées par des ambivalences et des ambiguïtés incompréhensibles avec une interprétation mettant en relief le processus de rationalisation. Nous verrons que la demande formulée par les skaters d�avoir des espaces réservés � les skate park � indice de sportivisation et en même temps de volonté de maintien des espaces propices à l�autonomie de cette pratique, est emblématique de cette ambiguïté et de cette ambivalence.

Abstract: Social integration and mental-bodily wellness are undoubtedly among the most relevant dimensions studied by the sociology of sport. Nevertheless, little attention has been given up to now to a topic which allows to analyse both these dimensions together: the use of physical activity as a tool for the social integration of persons with mental disease. These research field has great sociological relevance, not only for the disadvantaged social categories observed, but even for the study of the hegemonic interaction patterns in the society where these persons should be included (as shown by Erving Goffman�s studies on stigma and Gregory Bateson�s analysis of the social matrix of psychiatry). Nevertheless, the studies about the relations between sport and psychiatric rehabilitation have been carried out mostly by psychiatrists and psycologists, whose empirical index and scales are mainly focused on the intra-subjective dimension, such as the impact of physical activity on physiological, biological or neurological wellness. Less attention is given to the relational and social consequences of physical activity considered as: 1. a chance for the �mental ill� to broaden their social networks, both by interacting with athletes and teams composed by other patients and �above all� by interacting with the other people living in the local community (although interaction can also increase stress, fear and rejection); 2. a chance for the so called �normal� people to meet persons with mental disease, the first ones adapting their practices and attitudes to the presence of the second ones (although interaction can also enforce the stigma, instead of eroding it). We will suggest how the potentiality and the limits of various sport activities in relation to the social integration of mental disease could be studied not only through empirical diagnostic measurements, but also through ethnographic observation and the collection of narratives.

Abstract: Different sports practices are characterized by different patterns of interaction, which shape both the relations between the participants and those between them and the social environment where their practices take place. Young people often assume and reproduce the dominant (adult) sport culture, thus assuming and reproducing the general models of interaction proposed/imposed by adults, which socialize them to the legitimized ways of moving the body in the public space. Nevertheless, when organizing and shaping their sport games in urban spaces, outside the physical activities codified by sport clubs and federations, youth can search for autonomy, freedom and creativity. They can modify the �rules of the game� characterizing the environment in which they are socialized, in order to adapt them to their expressive and relational needs, and they can even �challenge� the (sport and social) rules by creating new �games�. Street soccer and skateboard can be seen as examples of these two manners. In both cases, youth must handle with the tension between the pressure to conformism and homologation coming from the educational agencies and from the market forces, on the one hand, and the search for autonomy, freedom and new criteria for recognition, on the other. The paper examines this topics starting from the preliminary analysis based on a ongoing ethnographic research in Padua (210,000 inhabitants, North-Eastern Italy) about �The differences in the urban space�. We are observing two groups of youngsters when using public space to practice two different sport-games � street soccer and skateboard � and we are comparing them by studying how they objectivate and/or liquefy generational, cultural, ethnic, gender, class (and other) differences.

Abstract: Toward the end of the 1980s, Yugoslavian football had undergone a progressive politicization. The emerging nationalist élites utilised it both as an arena of dissent in an anti-communist key, and as a basis for personal enrichment, construction of power at the local level, and political self-legitimisation in the eyes of their own national group. With the outbreak of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, each national group � Bosnian-Muslims (Bosnjaks), Bosnian-Serbs and Bosnian-Croats � set up its own football federation and began to organise its own competitions separately. After the war, the condition of Bosnian football was disastrous: division into three distinct and separate mono-ethnic federations, extremely low quality, lack of financial and structural resources, power in the hands of incompetent speculators coming from outside the world of football itself. Nevertheless, following strong pressures and conditionalities from FIFA, UEFA, and the IOC, the football establishments of the three national groups finally accepted to merge into a unified Bosnian Football Federation (N/FSBH) in 2002, and agreed to organise the Premier League, the first united Bosnian post-war championship. Drawing on ethnographic studies conducted in Bosnia-Herzegovina since 2003, I will examine the consequences of such a revamped inter-ethnic competition both in terms of re-integration of the Bosnian population, on the one hand, and possible exacerbation of ethnic tensions, on the other. As a first relevant consequence, the re-unification of the Bosnian football�s landscape contributes to unveil how ethnicity is instrumentally used by the post-war elites to exploit the common good for their private enrichment.

Abstract: Open Fun Football Schools (OFFS) is a grassroots youth football programme that has proved to be highly successful in encouraging the reintegration of divided communities in war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina. Drawing on ethnographic data interpreted through interaction ritual theory, this paper analyses the social mechanisms which enable the programme�s achievements. In post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, ethnicity is used by the local élites � Bosnjak (Muslim), Serb and Croat � as a criteria of recognition that legitimizes particularistic allocations and parasitic use of social power. On such a context, OFFS shows how ritual dynamics can be used to increase the relevance of alternative criteria of recognition, promote symbols and feelings of trans-ethnic belonging, and empower those people who support them. The sport events organized by OFFS are collective rituals, where participants gather together to celebrate objects of common interest � such as the playful dimension of football, the respect for diversity, the quest for meritocracy, the commitment to children�s welfare � which became symbols of the group thanks to the attention and the emotional energy directed towards them by the group members. By celebrating this common way of seeing and experiencing football, sport, and (more generally) social relations, the group celebrates itself as a moral community and keeps itself united. Therefore the success of OFFS strongly depends (although, of course, not exclusively) on the good functioning of the ritual mechanisms and thus relies on the organizers� capacity to mobilize and manage them. In this respect, the key point is the education provided to the coaches through the seminars, which have a double relevance for the ritual performance. Indeed, each seminar is both a ritual event itself, contributing to strengthen the group, and a locus where ritual competences are learned (i.e. experienced and embodied).

Abstract: In post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, ethnicity is used by the local élites � Bosnjak (Muslim), Serb and Croat � as a criteria of recognition that legitimizes particularistic allocations and parasitic use of social power. On such a context, the grassroots youth football programme Open Fun Football Schools (OFFS) has proved to be highly successful in encouraging the reintegration of divided communities, thus contributing to unveil such a politically instrumental use of ethnicity. Drawing on ethnographic data interpreted through interaction ritual theory, the social mechanisms which enable the programme�s achievements will be analysed. OFFS shows how ritual dynamics can be used to increase the relevance of alternative criteria of recognition, promote symbols and feelings of trans-ethnic belonging, and empower those people who support them. The sport events organized by OFFS are collective rituals, where participants gather together to celebrate objects of common interest � such as the playful dimension of football, the respect for diversity, the quest for meritocracy, the commitment to children�s welfare � which became symbols of the group thanks to the attention and the emotional energy directed towards them by the group members. By celebrating this common way of seeing and experiencing football, sport, and (more generally) social relations, the group celebrates itself as a moral community and keeps itself united. As the success of OFFS strongly depends (although not exclusively, of course) on the good functioning of the ritual mechanisms, it relies therefore on the organizers� capacity to mobilize and manage them. In this respect, the key point is the education provided to the coaches through the seminars, which have a double relevance for the ritual performance. Indeed, each seminar is both a ritual event itself, contributing to strengthen the group, and a locus where ritual competences are learned (i.e. experienced and embodied).

Abstract: Many of the theoretical and analytical reflections concerning the definition of the concepts of �religion� and �spirituality� show interesting convergences with the studies made by sport sociologists about the new paradigms of bodily movement. An important convergence can be found in the search for authenticity which is realized through a process of de-institutionalization of bodily practices. Traditional sport institutions � by organizing ludic-motor practice through codified rules, technical specialization, standardized spaces, predefined categories, criteria for measuring and comparing performances � have imposed a bodily movement orthodoxy that celebrates the secular cult of victory, performance and result within the frame of a (supposedly) open and fair competition. Nevertheless, new ludic-motor practices have developed as a reply to the constraining, homologating and alienating character taken by such a burocratization of bodily movement. Open air practices and lifestyle sports (surf, rafting, paragliding, orienteering, trekking, skateboarding, parkour, treeclimbing, ecc.) aim at retrieving � through a bodily experience relieved by spaces, times, rules and goals imposed by sport federations � a deepen relation with the environment and with the most authentic core of one�s own self. The consciousness of self and of the world gained through sensations and emotions of personal experience tends to replace the interiorization of the bodily movement patterns learned by trainers and instructors. The relation between institutionalized traditional sports and new ludic-motor practices can be interestingly analysed by exploring its analogies and differences with the relation between traditional forms of religion and new forms of spirituality. Indeed, whether the analogy between sport and religion has been criticized by many scholars mainly because of the lack (or low relevance) of the transcendent dimension in traditional sport practices, the recent sociological elaborations of the concept of spirituality seems to provide new interesting tools for interpreting the emerging forms of bodily movement.

Abstract: The relation between institutionalized traditional sports and emerging bodily practices can be interestingly analysed by exploring its analogies and differences with the relation between traditional forms of religion and new forms of spirituality. An important convergence can be found in the search for �authenticity� which is realized, in the field of sport such as in the religious one, through a process of de-institutionalization of the social practices. Many open air practices and lifestyle sports aim at retrieving � through a bodily experience relieved by spaces, times, rules and goals imposed by sport federations � a deepen relation with the environment and with the most authentic core of one�s own self. The consciousness of self and of the world gained through sensations and emotions of personal experience tends to replace the interiorization of the bodily movement patterns learned by trainers and instructors. Whereas the analogy between sport and religion has been criticized by many scholars mainly because of the lack (or low relevance) of the transcendent dimension in traditional sport practices, the recent sociological elaborations of the concept of spirituality seems to provide new interesting tools for interpreting the emerging forms of bodily movement.

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Abstract: The relation between institutionalized traditional sports and emerging bodily practices can be interestingly analysed by exploring its analogies and differences with the relation between traditional forms of religion and new forms of spirituality. An important convergence can be found in the search for authenticity which is realized, in the field of sport such as in the religious one, through a process of de-institutionalization of the social practices. Traditional sport institutions � by organizing ludic-motor practice through codified rules, technical specialization, standardized spaces, predefined categories, criteria for measuring and comparing performances � have imposed a bodily movement orthodoxy that celebrates the secular cult of victory, performance and result within the frame of a (supposedly) open and fair competition. Nevertheless, new forms of physical activities have developed as a reply to the constraining, homologating and alienating character taken by such a burocratization of bodily movement. Open air practices and lifestyle sports (surf, rafting, paragliding, orienteering, trekking, skateboarding, parkour, treeclimbing, ecc.) aim at retrieving � through a bodily experience relieved by spaces, times, rules and goals imposed by sport federations � a deepen relation with the environment and with the most authentic core of one�s own self. The consciousness of self and of the world gained through sensations and emotions of personal experience tends to replace the interiorization of the bodily movement patterns learned by trainers and instructors. Whether the analogy between sport and religion has been criticized by many scholars mainly because of the lack (or low relevance) of the transcendent dimension in traditional sport practices, the recent sociological elaborations of the concept of spirituality seems to provide new interesting tools for interpreting the emerging forms of bodily movement.

Abstract: Many theoretical and analytical reflections about the concepts of �religion� and �spirituality� show interesting convergences with the studies made by sport sociologists regarding new paradigms of bodily movement. An important convergence concerns the search for authenticity through a process of de-institutionalization. Traditional sport institutions � by organizing physical activity through codified rules, technical specialization, standardized spaces, predefined categories, criteria for performance comparison � have imposed a bodily movement orthodoxy which celebrates the secular cult of victory and result within the frame of a (supposedly) open and fair competition. Nevertheless, new ludic-motor practices have developed in opposition to the constraining, homologating and alienating character of this bodily movement burocratization. In open air practices and lifestyle sports (surf, orienteering, skateboarding, parkour, ecc.) the deeper consciousness of self and of the environment gained through personal experience, sensations and emotions, tends to replace the interiorization of bodily movement patterns defined by institutional trainers and instructors. Whereas the analogy between sport and religion has been criticized by many scholars mainly because of the lack (or low relevance) of the transcendent dimension in traditional sport practices, the recent sociological elaborations of the concept of spirituality provides new interesting tools for interpreting the emerging forms of bodily movement.

Abstract: The Italian sport system has been governed for many years mostly by the National Olimpic Committee, as it is characterized by the lack of a Ministry of Sport, the weak (but growing) role of the associations specifically devoted to �sport for all� � which is nevertheless implicitly promoted by many actors at the grassroots level within the National Sports Federations �, the very poor room for physical activity in schools� programs. Voluntarism represents one of the main pillars of the Italian sport system and one of the most important resources at disposal for a large part of sport associations. Indeed, available data inform us that an average of 10-11 volunteers operate in each sport association, giving their contribution for 5 hours a week (Censis, 2008). Overall, volunteers provide 225.000.000 working hours with a counter value of 3, 4 bill euro (15 euro per each hours). Regardless of the huge dimension of this phenomenon, with the exception of few analysis of the economic impact of volunteerism in sport, little research has been carried out in order to go into aspects such as the reasons of engagement, the frequency and the intensity of the involvement, the connection between civic engagement and volunteerism in sport, the quality of services provided, and other relevant social issues. Under these circumstances, the presentation will represent, from a sociological point of view, a general snapshot of the sport volunteerism in Italy. Particularly, besides a socio-diachronic analysis of the Italian sport system developed through the application of the so-called Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), the presentation will summarize the main results of different national studies aimed at going into the main features of volunteerism in sport. Furthermore, some of the main relevant correlations between the Italian sport system model and the different emerging paradigms of voluntarism will be also discussed. Attention will be paid to the great regional differentiation at the cultural, political and economical level, which influences both the forms of sport participation and the cultures of voluntarism and civic engagements.

Abstract: Social integration and mental-bodily wellness are undoubtedly among the most relevant dimensions studied by the sociology of sport. Nevertheless, little attention has been given up to now to a topic which allows to analyse both these dimensions together: the use of physical activity as a tool for the social integration of persons with mental disease. These research field has great sociological relevance, not only for the disadvantaged social categories observed, but even for the study of the hegemonic interaction patterns in the society where these persons should be included (as shown by Erving Goffman�s studies on stigma and Gregory Bateson�s analysis of the social matrix of psychiatry). Nevertheless, the studies about the relations between sport and psychiatric rehabilitation have been carried out mostly by psychiatrists and psycologists, whose empirical index and scales are mainly focused on the intra-subjective dimension, such as the impact of physical activity on physiological, biological or neurological wellness. Less attention is given to the relational and social consequences of physical activity considered as: 1. a chance for the �mental ill� to broaden their social networks, both by interacting with athletes and teams composed by other patients and �above all� by interacting with the other people living in the local community (although interaction can also increase stress, fear and rejection); 2. a chance for the so called �normal� people to meet persons with mental disease, the first ones adapting their practices and attitudes to the presence of the second ones (although interaction can also enforce the stigma, instead of eroding it). We will suggest how the potentiality and the limits of various sport activities in relation to the social integration of mental disease could be studied not only through empirical diagnostic measurements, but also through ethnographic observation and the collection of narratives.

Abstract: Different sports practices are characterized by different patterns of interaction, which shape both the relations between the participants and those between them and the social environment where their practices take place. Young people often assume and reproduce the dominant (adult) sport culture, thus assuming and reproducing the general models of interaction proposed/imposed by adults, which socialize them to the legitimized ways of moving the body in the public space. Nevertheless, when organizing and shaping their sport games in urban spaces, outside the physical activities codified by sport clubs and federations, youth can search for autonomy, freedom and creativity. They can modify the �rules of the game� characterizing the environment in which they are socialized, in order to adapt them to their expressive and relational needs, and they can even �challenge� the (sport and social) rules by creating new �games�. Street soccer and skateboard can be seen as examples of these two manners. In both cases, youth must handle with the tension between the pressure to conformism and homologation coming from the educational agencies and from the market forces, on the one hand, and the search for autonomy, freedom and new criteria for recognition, on the other. The paper examines this topics starting from the preliminary analysis based on a ongoing ethnographic research in Padua (210,000 inhabitants, North-Eastern Italy) about �The differences in the urban space�. We are observing two groups of youngsters when using public space to practice two different sport-games � street soccer and skateboard � and we are comparing them by studying how they objectivate and/or liquefy generational, cultural, ethnic, gender, class (and other) differences.

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Abstract: Different forms of sport events can promote different organisational patterns of social life and foster different political paradigms (Eichberg). This connection can be observed by analysing sport events as rituals which produce collective effervescence (Durkheim), sense of �us�, and communitas (Turner), linked to particular representations and visions of the world. During an ethnographic research I have analysed, through participant observation and in-depth interviews, some exemplary cases of grassroots football rituals in different European countries. Although the hegemonic form of football practice nowadays celebrates rational competition, efficiency and hierarchy (declassifying the losers and turning otherness into a pyramidal order), we can find at the grassroots level a certain number of football rituals, which celebrate the recognition of otherness through social sensuality, festivity, play, dance, creativity and fun. The Antiracist World Cup is a non-competitive tournament organised each summer in Italy, fostering the encounter among different collective and individual actors (football fans, migrant communities, associations, group of friends) and promoting a culture of dialogue, recognition and creative management of conflicts. By this case, I�ll show how this kind of events can �build� civil society through the practice of non-hierarchical and polycentric interaction patterns and can promote a particular model of participative democracy.

Abstract: As ritual practices, sports and bodily movement can create different forms of sacred. A first pattern includes competitive sports, which celebrate achievement and results. The important is �to be the best�, and ritual energy is oriented towards the top of the pyramidal ranking; the sacred is �high above�. A second pattern includes old gymnastics movements and modern fitness sports, which celebrate homologation through self-disciplining of bodies. The important is �to be the same�, and ritual energy is oriented towards the reproduction of standardised bodily models and towards social integration; the sacred is �inward�. A third pattern includes popular sports and folk games festivals, which celebrate diversity and open participation. The important is �to be�, and the ritual energy is diffused everywhere as a connective tissue; the sacred is �in-between�. In my contribution, I will suggest some theoretical and empirical implications of this analytical scheme.

Abstract: Religion � with its ritual practices, sacred objects and symbols of belonging � can create conditions for competition as well as cooperation. The same can be said of some institutionalised sport practices, in particular football. Football can be considered, in Europe, the most important contemporary form of �secular religion�. Such as traditional religious practices and belongings, the football can either reinforce particularistic identities, or promote universal values. I present the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a particular example of interaction between religious and football belongings, on one hand, and conflict/integration dynamics, on the other. In Bosnia and Herzegovina ethno-national belonging follows religious belonging. Religious identity has become relevant as political identity, and at present religious symbols keep on marking boundaries and separations. Football rituals, before and after the war, also have contributed to reinforce the separation among the three �ethnic� communities; yet, in the last 2-3 years football has been showing that, under particular conditions, it can also contribute to weaken the relevance of �ethnic� boundaries.

Abstract: In recent years I have been studying, through ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews, some exemplary cases of grassroots football rituals in different European countries. The connection between sport practices, sport cultures and socio-political paradigms (Eichberg), indeed, can be observed by analysing sport events as rituals which produce collective effervescence (Durkheim), sense of �us�, and communitas (Turner). Different sport events generate different figurations (Elias) of people in movement, i.e. they are displayed in different ritual forms. The hegemonic form of football practice nowadays celebrates rational competition, efficiency and hierarchy (declassifying the losers and turning otherness into a pyramidal order). In Italy this model is not only characteristic of professional football; it is also widespread at the grassroots level. Local clubs for many years have been oriented towards the production of talents for elite sport; achievement and results have became the sacred objects also for amateur, female and young players. Nevertheless, at the local level we can find a certain number of football events which accentuate the social dimension of sport by emphasizing festivity, music, play, creativity and fun. Diversity is not classified and marginalized, and the game itself is more important than winning. I will present the case of �24-hours tournaments� in which several matches at the same time are going on from Saturday to Sunday without pause all night long. The stadium becomes a sort of camping place, with restaurant and pub open 24 hours; players eat and drink (a lot), play cards, stay together, sleep for a while in their tents waiting for their next match. This case shows that stress, tension and hostility are not �natural� aspects of football; their relevance depends on the way in which the ritual dimension of sport events is organised and managed.

Abstract: Lo studio delle interconnessioni tra i fenomeni sportivi e quelli religiosi un ambito di ricerca dall�elevato potenziale euristico e teorico. Ciò nonostante, sociologia della religione e sociologia dello sport hanno raramente dialogato tra loro, perdendo l�occasione di creare sinergie utili a illuminare ulteriormente le dinamiche con cui diamo forma alla nostra vita sociale. Invertendo tale tendenza, questo numero monografico di «Religioni e Società» è dedicato all'analisi delle componenti religiose e spirituali dello sport. L�interrogazione del rapporto tra sport e spiritualità - che emerge nei saggi di Martelli, Pfister, Brown, Cipriani, Korsgaard, Parer e Watson qui presentati - rilancia il tema della necessaria contaminazione tra diversi paradigmi disciplinari, una contaminazione che sia in grado di aprire e costruire orizzonti di indagine e ricerca, evitando che ogni singola disciplina si appropri di modalità e di spazi privati ed esclusivi di trasmissione dei propri contenuti teorici. Le diverse prospettive scientifiche, storiche e teologiche che si intrecciano in questo numero di «Religioni e Società» contribuiscono a cercare un orizzonte comune sul quale in futuro sarà necessario riflettere in modo più definito e rigoroso.