Jorge Dorfman Knijnik

The Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro 2007: Consequences of a sport mega-event on a BRIC country

Sport mega-events were very important for Brazil in 2007. The 15th Pan American Games took place in Rio de Janeiro. It was the largest international tournament held in Brazil since the 1950 World Cup and the 1963 Pan American Games. The latter were held in São Paulo. In 2007, 5000 athletes and 60,000 tourists were expected from the 42 participating countries. Despite being a developing country, Brazil does have a sizable middle class, but in Rio de Janeiro there are also lots of favelas (slums), where millions of poor people live. Despite vast differences in wealth, power and social status, these socially and culturally distinct groups nonetheless utilize common public spaces. We see this social confrontation as a major question for the analyses of sport mega-events and we would like to demonstrate its consequences on a local level. This social tension was such that the Organizing Committee actually constructed a ‘big wall’ around the stadiums which turned them into islands of excellence to be shown on television, thus hiding the unsightly parts of the city, that is, poor neighborhoods and favelas. This wall could be seen as the BRIC-way of organizing mega-events.

Rhizomatic bodies, gendered waves: transitional femininities in Brazilian Surf

Surfing, practised along the whole Brazilian coast, was previously viewed as a mans sport; women are now taking to the waves and are among the best professional surfers in the world. This article focuses upon a group of women surfers using data gathered from semi-structured interviews with them. From the interviews it became apparent that at all times, in or out of the surf, the female surfers body is always a contested terrain, particularly in the economic context and when dealing with sponsors. In this context tensions emerge from the clash of traditional patriarchal mindsets regarding newly emergent femininities. Women in sport and their supporters reject the paradigm that considers them to be merely decorative and subservient to men, Brazilian female athletes are beginning to imagine and construct their bodies differently. As part of the first generation of professional Brazilian female surfers, this group represents a new site for the liberation of Brazilian women.

Visions of Gender Justice: Untested Feasibility on the Football Fields of Brazil

From 1941 to 1979 women in Brazil were forbidden by law to play the national sport of football and continue to struggle to participate this major aspect of the country’s social life. This paper focuses on the political ideas of Juliana Cabral, the captain of the Brazilian women’s football team that won the silver medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004. Against a background of organized political contestation of the gender structure in Brazilian sports, I use Paulo Freire’s concept of untested feasibility to chronical Juliana Cabral’s vision of gender justice in football as well as her actions to promote gender equality within football. This is a particularly important moment of contestation to document given that Brazil is scheduled to host two major world sports events this decade—the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics, which will highlight to the world once again the tensions within the gender social order in the country.

Feeling at home: an autoethnographic account of an immigrant football fan in Western Sydney

Despite the relocation, pressures that usually restrict time available for leisure activities, football fandom is one distraction new immigrants continue to enjoy after moving to a new country. In this paper, I explore my own connection to the Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (WSWFC), a relationship that helped me integrate into a new society after what had been a challenging migration experience. I use an autoethnographic approach and a theoretical background that characterises football fandom as a metaphysical experience of the ordinary people. The story of my involvement with the WSWFC and its fans shows how football fandom can be an effective tool for new immigrants, assisting with socialisation and integration into the new society.

2, 6, heave! : sail training’s influence on the development of self-concept and social networks and their impact on engagement with learning and education : a pilot study

It is difficult to provide disengaged youth, who are at risk of not fulfilling their potential, with the social support necessary to remain active contributors to society. They are more likely to fail and drop from education greatly reducing the prospect of becoming constructive, productive community members. Consequently strategies to promote engagement with learning and education need to be investigated. This study explores the impact on an individual’s self-concept and social networking skills through participation in an experiential learning program at sea conducted in Australia’s national sail training ship STS Young Endeavour and how this may influence student engagement with learning and education. Using qualitative interviews, engagement with learning and education of five participants from different educational backgrounds was examined pre and post voyage. The results suggest participation in the Young Endeavour program had a positive effect on development of social relationships, general self-concept, motivation to study, and sense of purpose for learning. Key contributing factors appear to be experiential learning activities specifically designed to support the development of greater self-concept and social skills such as climbing aloft, working together as a ‘watch’ and taking control of the vessel.

Mulheres podem praticar lutas? Um estudo sobre as representações sociais de lutadoras universitárias

Historicamente, a mulher foi perseguida dentro do esporte, sofrendo de maledicencias, proibicoes e de preconceitos. Isto piora quando se envolvem com modalidades que apresentam caracteristicas “masculinas”. Este estudo teve como objetivo pesquisar as representacoes de mulheres que praticam luta. Foram entrevistadas sete lutadoras universitarias, que se envolveram com atividade fisica na infância, na escola e incentivadas por pais; esta pratica se encerrou na adolescencia, para ser retomada novamente na adultez. As lutadoras apontam para a existencia de preconceito sobre elas, e para a total ausencia da midia nas lutas femininas. Percebeu-se que muitas nao se consideram lutadoras, e concluiu-se que isto e uma forma destas lidarem com o preconceito.

Women, men and horses : looking at the equestrian world through a “gender lens”

Perhaps almost as much a part of world literature as romantic references to a man and his horse (the warrior, cowboy, or gaucho and his faithful mount) are the numerous existing narratives on women and horses, from age-old mythology to contemporary popular fiction. This chapter provides a survey and summary of literature produced from social science perspectives, works that attempt to move beyond common sense notions to capture historical dynamics and current renegotiations of gender relations within the equestrian world today. We draw attention to an emerging literature and growing wealth of empirical work that, from diverse standpoints – from recent sociology and feminist sport studies to contemporary “deconstructionist” perspectives – examines women’s and men’s experiences in equestrian sports and practice. We also present a brief sketch of the diverse chapters that follow: studies carried out in a variety of cultural contexts in which equestrian activities and communities contribute to (de) constructions of embodied “femininities” and “masculinities” and in which gendered equestrian relations are uniquely configured through intersection with other axes of social stratification (class, race, sexuality, generation, etc.).

Playing for freedom: Sócrates, futebol-arte and democratic struggle in Brazil

Brazilian futebol has provided the world with several first-class players who have left their footprint on football history. However, no player can be compared to Sócrates; Sócrates was not only an icon of futebol-arte who mastered the ‘back heel’ and played for the Brazilian team in two FIFA World Cups (1982 and 1986), he was also a political activist who fought for democracy from inside the football world and who joined the Brazilian struggle for civil liberties during the 1980s. Interviews with sport journalists, an exploration of my personal memories of Brazilian futebol and the political scene, and a revisiting of Sócrates’ chronicles and testimonies together demonstrate Sócrates’ belief that the futebol arena was a privileged place to fight for social change. Sócrates passed away in 2011, leaving an inspiring heritage of joy, futebol-arte and freedom struggle. His libertarian legacy must be acknowledged in a country where, despite being acclaimed as one of the most authentic cultural expressions of the people, futebol is controlled by a corrupted and authoritarian elite.

Educating Copacabana: A Critical Analysis of the "Second Half", an Olympic Education Program of Rio 2016.

The Second Half Program (SHP) is an educational sports program running in Brazil. It began in 2003 and was one of the Olympic educational proposals described in the Rio 2016 Olympics bid. Using sport as a tool, the SHP aims to deliver moral education and to promote citizenship in order to counteract “social exclusion” and “social vulnerability”. Our analysis of official SHP documents and interviews with key actors in several SHPs reveals that the SHP illustrates the view that merely participating in sport will instill moral and Olympic values. Thus, although it represents a clear advance in government sports education policies, both its organizational methods and the lack of a clear pedagogy seem to limit the scope of the SHP to sports teaching. It thus fails to reach the broader scope that should be approached in an Olympic educational program.

Sob o signo de Ludens: Interfaces entre brincadeiras, jogo e os significados do esporte de competição

Este ensaio visa discutir as interfaces e delimitar as fronteiras entre as atividades que fazem parte do amplo espectro da ludicidade humana, isto e, a brincadeira, o jogo e o esporte. Partindo de uma alegoria sobre uma familia se divertindo em um domingo livre, com cada faixa etaria atuando em um destes contextos – da brincadeira infantil a assistencia do esporte profissional e institucionalizado - o texto exemplifica cada um destes conceitos, mostrando como eles se articulam, e de que forma seus limites devem ser pensados e tornados claros por aqueles que atuam na area da Educacao e do Esporte. No segundo momento, o artigo retoma caracteristicas fundamentais do esporte moderno enquanto instituicao e fenomeno representado em nivel simbolico na sociedade contemporânea. This study aims at talking over the interfaces and delimiting the frontiers for those activities that are part of the Human Ludo Capacities, that is, Game, Play and Competition Sport Starting from an allegory about a festive family reunion who is enjoying a Sunday holiday, each age range performing in one of these contexts (as from the childrens plays to the audience to the professional and instituted Sports - the text illustrates all of those concepts above, showing how they interact and how their limits must be thought and regarded by those who act on the Education and Sport area. Later this article retakes the essential characteristics of the Modern Sports as an institution and fenomenon symbolically represented in our modern society.