Le paradoxe des politiques d’intégration par le sport. Une enquête ethnographique comparative dans deux communes bruxelloises

• Main Author: Olivier Schmitz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université Catholique de Louvain 2012-06-01
• Series: Recherches Sociologiques et Anthropologiques
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rsa/849

Sport occupies a central place in the integration policies put in place by the districts’ public authorities due to the socializing virtues attributed to it. But the effectiveness of those policies is substantially conditioned by the ideology and ends pursued by the decision makers and local actors who, according to the political contexts, mainly model the activities offered to suit the dominated social categories. Based on comparative research carried out using an ethnographical procedure, and having as its object a comparison of the sport policies in two districts of the Brussels area whose populations contrast strongly according to current socio-economic criteria, this article shows how sporting activities seeking to foster “socialisation” and “integration” produce contrary effects and reinforce the processes differentiating and distancing the populations most lacking in cultural capital.