Foucault and the small docile bodies in womens artistic gymnastics in Brazil

• Grant number: 19/04687-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2019
• End date: July 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Myrian Nunomura
• Grantee: Vitor Ricci Costa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação Física (FEF). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The quality of interpersonal relationships established in the sociocultural context of high performance sports is fundamental for positive experiences and for sports success. In the case of the Women's Artistic Gymnastics (WAG), gymnasts devote many hours of their lives to training and live intensely with the people in the gymnasium. In this context, the affective relationship among coaches and athletes are essential to overcome the challenges of this sport. On the other hand, we identify imbalances that contribute to an autocratic pattern in this relationship. In this way, athletes are usually coaches' dependent and are taught to act without question, becoming docile bodies, productive and submissive. Therefore, there are signs that reveal misconceptions in the management of this power relationship, which would reflect subordination, harassment and abuse. We emphasize this concern, since gymnasts are usually children and teenagers. However, we think that the coach handles the expectations of gymnasts, parents, clubs and for their own purposes. In this way, we believe that analyzing how these relationships happen and how coaches manage them is the initial step to bring up the genesis of this complex problem. Thus, we shall analyze how power relations happen in a high performance training gymnasium of WAF in Brazil from an ethnographic approach. We will use the technique of thematic analysis to analyze the data. We choose Michel Foucault's theoretical approach to discuss power relations in the training gymnasium and to rethink the disciplinary logic in the gymnast-coach relationship. (AU)

Scientific publications

(5)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DE OLIVEIRA, LAURA; COSTA, VITOR RICCI; ANTUALPA, KIZZY FERNANDES; NUNOMURA, MYRIAN. ODY AND PERFORMANCE IN RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS: SCIENCE OR BELIEF. SCIENCE OF GYMNASTICS JOURNAL, v. 13, n. 3, p. 311-321, 2021. (19/04687-7)

COSTA, VITOR RICCI; LUGUETTI, CARLA; OLIVEIRA, MAURICIO DOS SANTOS; PINHEIRO, MARIA CLAUDIA; NUNOMURA, MYRIAN. Living within and outside a disciplinary bubble: a Foucauldian analysis of Brazilian gymnasts' experiences in boarding school. SPORT EDUCATION AND SOCIETY, v. N/A, p. 14-pg., 2022-11-05. (19/04687-7)

COSTA, VITOR RICCI; RODRIGUES MARQUES, RENATO FRANCISCO; OLIVEIRA, MAURICIO DOS SANTOS; NUNOMURA, MYRIAN. ``PUPPETS{''} IN WOMEN'S ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS: THE COACH-GYMNAST RELATIONSHIP FROM PIERRE BOURDIEU'S LENS. SCIENCE OF GYMNASTICS JOURNAL, v. 12, n. 3, p. 367-380, 2020. (19/04687-7)

COSTA, VITOR RICCI; RODRIGUES MARQUES, RENATO FRANCISCO; OLIVEIRA, MAURICIO DOS SANTOS; NUNOMURA, MYRIAN. "PUPPETS" IN WOMEN'S ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS: THE COACH-GYMNAST RELATIONSHIP FROM PIERRE BOURDIEU'S LENS. SCIENCE OF GYMNASTICS JOURNAL, v. 12, n. 3, p. 14-pg., 2020-01-01. (19/04687-7)

DE OLIVEIRA, LAURA; COSTA, VITOR RICCI; ANTUALPA, KIZZY FERNANDES; NUNOMURA, MYRIAN. BODY AND PERFORMANCE IN RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS: SCIENCE OR BELIEF?. SCIENCE OF GYMNASTICS JOURNAL, v. 13, n. 3, p. 11-pg., 2021-01-01. (19/04687-7)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

COSTA, Vitor Ricci. Coaching as a joint endeavor: a foucauldian analysis of a gymnasium of women's artistic gymnastics. 2022. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Educação Física Campinas, SP.