Leading the left: sociability and the micropolitics of cultural reproduction in grassrootsboxe popolarecoaching

Abstract

This article explores coaching in boxe popolare (people's boxing) ─ a style of boxing codified by leftist grassroots groups in contemporary Italy. The paper presents a micro-sociological analysis of data collected during a three-year multi-sited participant observation focusing on Patrick (pseudonym), who is the leading coach of a boxe popolare team. It examines the micropolitics of reproduction via the under-researched notion of 'sociability'. To contextualise this, a Bourdieusian framework, drawing on the concepts of 'field', 'capital', 'habitus', 'doxa' and 'symbolic violence', is employed. Findings highlight how boxe popolare is infused with far-left militant culture. Patrick uses sociability strategically, a) to reproduce an embodied ethics of this specific boxing style; b) to strengthen the collective values inherent within boxe popolare political milieu; c) to perform the boxe popolare network; and finally, d) to legitimise his own authority in the coaching structure. In conclusion, we highlight the importance of sociability for understanding micropolitical influence in coaching practice and consider the emergent idea of hybrid field as a way to better explore the interplay between coaching pedagogy, the political field and beyond.

Cultivating Health in Martial Arts and Combat Sports Pedagogies: A Theoretical Framework on the Care of the Self

“…Of course, MACS pedagogies remain controversial, since they can rehearse hegemonic discourses and established forms of discrimination. Martial arts can still be used to support political and military ventures whose main aim is to realize supremacist projects, as the rise of the fascist fight clubs in several Western countries and Post-Soviet countries demonstrate ( Pedrini et al, 2019 ). However, despite the political makeup of a country, people are increasingly aware of the environmental consequences of human action.…”

Blending Martial Arts and Yoga for Health: From the Last Samurai to the First Odaka Yoga Warrior

“…Finally, I contend that to study hybrid conceptions of health where Western, indigenous, and New Age systems of knowledge and their epistemologies intersect, could be a promising avenue for future research and may contribute to shed further insights into the psychologization of the religious and spiritual fields as much as the spiritualization of medicine. The concept of "hybrid field" (Pedrini et al, 2019) is, I believe, particularly useful in this regard. This concept was originally coined to discuss-starting from a micropolitical exploration of the coaching environmenthow "boxe popolare"'s (people's boxing) (Pedrini, 2018(Pedrini, , 2020 coaches negotiate the boundaries of the field relying on the practical-discursive logics of different fields, such as the sporting and the political fields.…”

“…This literature has extensively inquired into the history, developments and deployments of many martial arts (e.g., Green and Svinth, 2003 ) and their deconstruction (e.g., Bowman, 2019a ), focusing especially on their “culture of combats” (e.g., Sánchez-García and Spencer, 2013 ; Brown et al, 2019 ), pedagogical environments, processes of apprenticeship, and knowledge transmission (e.g., Wacquant, 2004 ; Brown, 2005 , 2011 ; Downey, 2005 , 2008 ; Spencer, 2009 , 2014 ; Brown and Jennings, 2011 ; Downey et al, 2015 ; Jennings et al, 2020 ), embodiment and sensuous involvement (e.g., Stephens and Delamont, 2006 ; Samudra, 2008 ; Farrer and Whalen-Bridge, 2011 ; Spencer, 2011 , 2012 ; Jennings, 2013 ; Channon and Jennings, 2014 ; Southwood and Delamont, 2018 ; Telles et al, 2018 ), religious and spiritual bearings (e.g., Maliszewski, 1996 ; Brown et al, 2009 , 2014 ; Jennings et al, 2010 ; Brown, 2013 ; Tuckett, 2016 ; Pedrini, 2020 ), and media representations (e.g., Brown et al, 2008 ; Jakubowska et al, 2016 ; Yip, 2017 ; Bowman, 2019b , c , d , 2020a , b ; Trausch, 2019 ). Moreover, as this body of work increases, specializes and further develops, also its attention to conceptual clarity and theoretical developments intensifies, with the consequent introduction of a host of new concepts and theoretical perspectives (e.g., Brown and Jennings, 2013 ; Sánchez-García and Spencer, 2013 ; Cynarski and Skowron, 2014 ; Martínková and Parry, 2016 ; Bowman, 2017 ; Cynarski, 2017 , 2019a ; Jenninings, 2019; Pedrini et al, 2019 ) oriented to the creation, maintenance, and re-invention of the disciplinary boundaries of martial arts and combat sports and martial arts studies and to their legitimacy as autonomous fields of study. However, as rightly underlined in the journal's description of this special ...…”

The antifascist boxing body: Political somatics in boxe popolare

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“…For instance, boys and girls share a bathroom to shower and a bench where they change clothes. Sharing a common space de-hierarchicalizes the physical environment and encourages everybody to chat on a huge spectrum of topics, often contentious, such as mobilization, elections, lifestyle and migration, all of which reinforce the political consciousness of the participants (see Pedrini et al, 2020).…”