L'allenatore

Analyzing sports and physical activities, many anthropologists have focused on the processes through which practitioners collectively learn to perform and “embody” not only the technical and athletic skills required by their activity, but also the related systems of judgment, relational models and “ways of living”. In Italy, only occasionally this has led to a reflection on the role that teachers, coaches, trainers etc. have in these processes. This special issue aims to bring attention on this topic, in a broader dialogue with the international literature. Introducing very diverse case studies (notably, a “boxe popolare” gym in Milan and a boxing gym in Bologna, football in Brazil, dance schools in Brazil and Rwanda, Breton wrestling clubs and dance classes in Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic), this collection aims to read sporting contexts as contexts of education, showing the value of ethnographic methodology in understanding and explaining these local universes of meaning, offering useful tools for change and intervention.