Solidarity grassroots football and Right to the City: How solidarity to refugees and people seeking asylum, and resistance to the commodification of public space intersect in Italian grassroots football

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstract

Abstract

Following the 2007-2008 financial crisis, Italian left leaning social movements
have experimented with ways to provide free access to sports. While this was
initially mostly in the form of community gyms within self-managed social
centres, grassroots football increasingly became a widely popular activity
organised by social movement activists. In the aftermath of the so called 2015
“refugee crisis”, grassroots football became a privileged way for left leaning
social movements to engage with and provide solidarity to people seeking
asylum.
In this paper, through a discussion of the practices and discourses adopted
by the grassroots football project explored in my doctoral research, I will
analyse how the Italian social centres’ traditional fight for “the right to the city”
(Harvey, 2008) intersects with practices and discourses in solidarity with people
seeking asylum. In particular, I will firstly reflect on the role played by grassroots
football in the local resistance to processes of gentrification. I will then explore
how football was mobilised for engagement with, and to provide opportunities
for leisure to, people seeking asylum. In this context, I will also discuss how
participation in grassroots football provided participants with attachments to
the local space. As such, a sense of “place-belonginess” (Antonsich, 2010) for
people seeking asylum was fostered by involvement in the project. Finally, I will
maintain that this localised sense of belonging was a key feature for resisting
both commodification of public space and people seeking asylum’s sense of
liminality in the hosting country. From this perspective, solidarity to people
seeking asylum is part of a wider political project of belonging, alternative to
the nationalist-autochthonic one carried out by the rising right-wing parties in
Italy.
Original languageEnglish
Pages263
Number of pages1
Publication statusPublished online - 31 Jul 2023
EventXX ISA World Congress of Sociology - Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Melbourne, Australia
Duration: 25 Jun 20231 Jul 2023

Conference

ConferenceXX ISA World Congress of Sociology
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CityMelbourne
Period25/06/231/07/23

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