Introduction: Mandated restrictions on outdoor physical activity (PA) during the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the lifeworld of millions of people and led to a contradictory situation. On the one hand, PA was perceived as risky behaviour, as it might facilitate transmission of the virus. On the other hand, while taking precautions, regular PA was an important tool to promote the population's health during the lockdown.Methods: This paper examines the differences in government restrictions on PA in France, Germany, and Italy during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. We draw on techniques of qualitative content analysis and apply a critical theoretical framework to assess the countries' restrictions on PA.Results: Our analysis shows that the restrictions on PA varied in the three countries, in all three countries. This variance is attributed both to differences in the timing and severity of the pandemic in the countries analysed, as well as to the divergence in the relationships between the countries' sport and health systems.Conclusion: At the national level, the variance in restrictions on PA reflect the differences in the spread of the coronavirus and in the health systems' understanding of and approach to PA. The global scientific discourse on the pandemic represents a further key influencing factor. The management of the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated that the extreme complexity of societies in terms of public health, politics, and the economy pose challenges and unsolvable contradictions.

The recent flow of immigrants to Italy and France, two countries that are the principal destinations after crossing the Mediterranean Sea, has turned out to be a complex and multidimensional problem to manage. Both France and Italy organised a complex method for welcoming and distributing the migrants around their territory as much as possible, hosting them in structures adapted or created for this purpose.On the Italian side, two main issues might be identified and analysed: on the one hand the humanitarian emergency of the reception of the migrants, on the other hand, the difficult processes of social integration/inclusion which were put in place. On the French side, these issues are linked to the managing of the risk of radicalisation, in a context in which the memory of the recent terrorist attacks remains vivid.In dealing with the management of the process of social integration/inclusion, sport has proven to be an important (although controversial) opportunity for social inclusion of young immigrants. Micro participatory action-research has highlighted the potential given by a shared cultural framework, such as that provided by the practice of sport. On the Italian side, these practices have not yet been institutionalised, while on the French side there is a more organic strategy, based on a longer standing tradition of using sport as a means of social inclusion.Starting from this premise about the situation of the two countries, we will propose a descriptive and theoretical comparison based on some case studies that we consider significant in terms of the French and Italian approach to social inclusion through sports.

Even if related to the seminal work of Kurt Lewin dating back to 1946, participatory approaches like action research still represent a relevant theoretical and practical set of methodologies for social work and research. In this article, after a brief overview of this methodological approach, the use of this paradigm in social work is explored, with a special focus on the development of symbolic and material resources within local communities. The processes and forms of involvement are examined with regard to the Italian experience of local development. An application of the participatory methodology stemming from a phenomenological approach proposed by Achille Ardigò, a well-known Italian sociologist, is employed. Following these premises, a procedural model enhancing the development of social groups is considered as the building block of community development. Short examples are provided. It is concluded that, in the process of local development, the symbolic and the immaterial dimensions need to be stimulated, as well as the material and the infrastructural ones. In order to achieve this, correct tools are needed

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