Informal sport practices of young chilean people: social phenomenon or fashion effect?

Abstract

Chile has developed a free market economy that has allowed the State to transfer certain functions that are essential such as Education and Health to the private sector. In front of this society model, there is a new generation of young people living and thinking according to that model, influenced by mass media and globalization. Young people intend to show their identity through cultural and social expressions, such as doing voluntary work, they show their dissatisfaction through violence, they stand out through cultural expressions, such as the Hip-Hop phenomenon and its related processes, through body expressions such as rap and informal sports practices, etc. This paper is focused on the analysis of these informal sports practices from a sociological point of view. Apparently, young people oppose a traditional sports model imposed in the Chilean society; they mainly oppose the practice of soccer that is very popular and massive. We are in front of a generation of young people who, dissatisfied with the sports model, express themselves through sports practices using elements such as the skateboard. These young people have invaded squares and streets all over the country with their acrobatics. These groups are considered marginal to the formal sports system and to society that relate them to delinquency and drug consumption. The analysis of this study permits to evidence these groups of young people from a social and cultural point of view, or rather, as a fashionable effect. These young people try to highlight their presence in society through their dressing and particular practices.