Network design of a social sports project: actors, representations and meanings

Abstract

This study is offered with the aim of exploring the meanings assigned by a network of actors who develops a social sports project. The Boxing Project Vidigal (PBV) has its activities in the Vidigal slum, located in the south of the city of Rio de Janeiro, next to the neighborhood of Leblon. The methodology used in this study was based on the procedures of network analysis and also the construction of categories, based on the definition of the core and the periphery of representations. We conclude that there is great centralization of the person who conceived the project, for this reason there is low density and high centrality in the network. The perceptions of the actors roam the ideas that the project "changes people's lives," that young people "become less aggressive," that there are "social contribution in the formation of children, youth and families" and promotes "social inclusion of people living in poor.