Between identity and politics: a reflection on affinities, antagonisms and sports practices starting from the red gyms case

This paper focusses on the importance of sport activities in encouraging behaviours and values in relation to a given habitus. This paper is aimed at showing how this link is particularly strong in the case of self-managed red gyms (palestre popolari ), in which aggregation and ideology reposition some typical focal concerns which are instrumental in building up a shared identity amongst those who take part to the activities. Key points of these considerations are the concepts of Bourdieu's habitus and of de Certau's strategy in order to show the following: the link between social identity and sport; how activities in red gyms (with particular regard to Italian palestre popolari and boxing) create the conditions for a connection between strategic action, culture, and politics. The ultimate aim of this paper is reflecting on specific aspects of life, through which it is possible to identify conflictual experiences and collective antagonism practices, and in which the relationship between sport socialisation and construction of new identities in the XXI century is emphasised.