TY - JOUR
T1 - The antifascist boxing body
T2 - Political somatics in boxe popolare
AU - Pedrini, Lorenzo
AU - Brown, David
AU - Navarini, Gianmarco
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2021/8/29
Y1 - 2021/8/29
N2 - Palestre popolari (‘people’s gyms’) are flourishing in contemporary Italy. These gyms are run by leftist grassroots organizations (ANTIFA), which promote an alternative boxing style: boxe popolare (‘people’s boxing’). Drawing on a three-year ethnography, this article focuses on body usages in boxe popolare. Connecting Mauss with Bourdieu, the study elucidates that the ways in which bodies are deployed in boxe popolare shape a scheme of dispositions – mutualism, combat, engagement and conviviality – forming an antifascist pugilistic habitus. A leftist physicality is hence incorporated as an interpolation of political dispositions with virtues of prowess, self-control and toughness, instilled in boxe popolare bodies regardless of their gender identity. This emergent leftist physicality becomes bodily hexis as soon as it is displayed publicly by the fighters, both men and women, as the legitimate representation of the political community to which they belong. The study ends highlighting implications for research about political somatics.
AB - Palestre popolari (‘people’s gyms’) are flourishing in contemporary Italy. These gyms are run by leftist grassroots organizations (ANTIFA), which promote an alternative boxing style: boxe popolare (‘people’s boxing’). Drawing on a three-year ethnography, this article focuses on body usages in boxe popolare. Connecting Mauss with Bourdieu, the study elucidates that the ways in which bodies are deployed in boxe popolare shape a scheme of dispositions – mutualism, combat, engagement and conviviality – forming an antifascist pugilistic habitus. A leftist physicality is hence incorporated as an interpolation of political dispositions with virtues of prowess, self-control and toughness, instilled in boxe popolare bodies regardless of their gender identity. This emergent leftist physicality becomes bodily hexis as soon as it is displayed publicly by the fighters, both men and women, as the legitimate representation of the political community to which they belong. The study ends highlighting implications for research about political somatics.
KW - boxing
KW - far left
KW - habitus
KW - hexis
KW - political belonging
KW - techniques of the body
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113972476&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/14661381211036134
DO - 10.1177/14661381211036134
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85113972476
SN - 1466-1381
VL - 22
SP - 311
EP - 333
JO - Ethnography
JF - Ethnography
IS - 3
ER -