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The Shared Sociological Imagination: A Reflexive Tale from the Boxe Popolare Field

Author

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  • Lorenzo Pedrini

    (Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy)

Abstract

This paper considers the personal commitment to ‘boxe popolare’ (people’s boxing), focusing on my scholar-practitioner status as a tool to contribute to the boxe popolare agenda by means of what I term ‘shared sociological imagination’. Through a reflexive tale on becoming a boxe popolare member, the article sheds light on the importance of overcoming the theory/practice divide. The first section of the paper draws on ‘habitus as topic and tool’—namely, the methodology I have adopted in a four-year ethnography of boxe popolare—and illustrates sociological imagination as a capacity that can be cultivated even in extremely carnal worlds by social agents who do not belong to academia. The second section broadens the reasoning, arguing that one characterising trait of being a scholar-practitioner in sport and physical culture may consist in working out agency both on an individual and a collective level. Echoing Burawoy’s perspective of ‘public sociology’, such an attempt can be seen as a potentially emancipatory strategy: it allows people with whom we research and practice to live with and through theory, embodying shared understandings in novel mundane activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Lorenzo Pedrini, 2023. "The Shared Sociological Imagination: A Reflexive Tale from the Boxe Popolare Field," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-14, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:13:y:2023:i:11:p:233-:d:1271129
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robyn L. Jones & Charles L. T. Corsby & Gethin L. Thomas, 2023. "Bordering, Connecting, and Dispelling within Sports Coaching: Erasing the Practitioner–Scholar Divide," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-11, August.
    2. David S. Contreras Islas & George Jennings, 2023. "A Typology of Martial Arts Scholar–Practitioners: Types, Transitions, and Tensions in Capoeira," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-24, September.
    3. Matteo Di Placido, 2023. "“Scholar–Practitioners”, Reflexivity and the Illusio of the Field: Ethnography, Yoga Studies and the Social Scientific Study of Religion," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-15, August.
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    1. David S. Contreras Islas & George Jennings, 2023. "A Typology of Martial Arts Scholar–Practitioners: Types, Transitions, and Tensions in Capoeira," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-24, September.

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