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Breton wrestling ("gouren") is a "traditional" style of grappling wrestling that is practiced in Brittany, France. During the last century, it has been transformed into a competitive and institutionalized sport. Notwithstanding, practitioners still feel inspired by what tiiey call the "ancestral spirit" of gouren, that is supposed to date back to the Celtic origins of the practice itself. In line with this ascription, Breton wrestlers state gouren s values are different from those that characterize other styles of competitive wrestling (such as competition, athletic performance, and aggression). Correspondingly, they collectively enhance the social, historical, cultural and convivial aspects of gouren, instead of pursuing sportive excellence. Therefore, even if the teaching methods of Breton wrestling have been elaborated by the Gouren Federation drawing on the model of the most popular contemporary combat sports, coaching in gouren is a mutual practice where any hierarchic division between the "Master" and apprentices is purposely avoided. Breton wrestling trainings happen in a social and mutual spirit, where everyone is involved, and anyone can be teacher and pupil at the same time. Through this particular coaching style, gouren aims to convey an ethic system, that corresponds to the moral characters that are (stereotypically) ascribed to die Breton ancestors that firstly adopted the practice - and therefore, ipso facto, to Breton culture and identity as well. Breton wrestlers collectively adhere to this regionally characterized system of values, that is also expressed by the way of teaching wrestling techniques.

Analyzing sports and physical activities, many anthropologists have focused on the processes through which practitioners collectively learn to perform and "embody" not only the technical and athletic skills required by their activity, but also the related systems of judgment, relational models and "ways of living". In Italy, only occasionally this has led to a reflection on the role that teachers, coaches, trainers etc. have in these processes. This special issue aims to bring attention on this topic, in a broader dialogue with the international literature. Introducing very diverse case studies (notably, a "boxe popolare" gym in Milan and a boxing gym in Bologna, football in Brazil, dance schools in Brazil and Rwanda, Breton wrestling clubs and dance classes in Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic), this collection aims to read sporting contexts as contexts of education, showing the value of ethnographic methodology in understanding and explaining these local universes of meaning, offering useful tools for change and intervention.

In Brittany, a region in northwestern France, there are currently about 1600 members of the Gouren Federation, who practice gouren, or Breton wrestling, and transmit this wrestling tradition. Since it was first institutionalized as a sport during the Interwar period, the progressive transformation of Breton wrestling as an organized sport has been debated among its practitioners. In this process, representations of local identity - especially in terms of power of action and identification - have created tensions and shifts around the meaning and function of this cultural tradition. The aim of this paper is to focus on the transformative practices at the intersection of globality and locality and to understand the processes of creation, recreation, reinvention (or “imagination”) of practices and identity in this laboratory of tradition. This anthropological-historical analysis of gouren attempts to show how the sportization of the activity has participated in the larger process of inventing a region, but is neither a linear nor definitive process and does not necessarily result in uniformity and homogenization.

The performance of the ring-imaging Cherenkov detectors at the LHCb experiment is determined during the LHC Run 2 period between 2015 and 2018. The stability of the Cherenkov angle resolution and number of detected photons with time and running conditions is measured. The particle identification performance is evaluated with data and found to satisfy the requirements of the physics programme.

I libri di testo hanno un ruolo fondamentale nella trasmissione dei saperi a scuola. In occasione del decennio ONU dedicato alle scienze del mare si è voluto analizzare come i libri di testo per la scuola primaria affrontino questo spazio. La visione del mare che è veicolata da questi strumenti è fortemente terracentrica, il mare è prevalentemente descritto come il limite della terra ferma. Dal punto di vista iconografico si riscontrano delle contraddizioni tra testo e immagini, inoltre il mare è prevalentemente rappresentato sulla falsa riga della sua immagine turistica.

This special issue on hand-to-hand sports aims to analyse how collective identities and forms of group and community belonging are defined, strengthened, built, imagined or even denied in the sportive and social contexts in which hand-to-hand combat or wrestling disciplines are practised. Considering the wide-ranging cross-cultural distribution of combat and wrestling practices in very different cultures and societies across the contemporary world, this issue intends to provide a (not-exhaustive) comparison of practices originating in highly heterogeneous geographical, social and cultural contexts. Indeed, comparisons focus on specific practices (combat and wrestling activities) and their relationship with belonging. The contributing scholars have studied and reflected on a particular style of wrestling or combat practice and its links to social belonging and identity, whether it be expressed on regional or national, local or global, social or ethnic, institutional or ‘counter-cultural’, symbolic or concrete levels.

Questa tesi è un’analisi etnografica del surf e della “cultura sportiva” che esso alimenta nella regione/città della Gold Coast, all’estremità sud-orientale dello Stato del Queensland, in Australia. In questa area turistica dal clima mite e costantemente battuta dalle onde, infatti, il surf ha trovato un’accoglienza particolare, ed è diventato parte integrante del paesaggio, segnando l’identità del luogo e contribuendo a definirne il patrimonio. In questo processo, nella «surfing culture» della Gold Coast hanno trovato espressione istanze locali così come questioni di più ampio respiro, come il rapporto col mare e con la spiaggia che in Australia ha storicamente assunto una rilevanza sociale particolare, un’idea di identità nazionale fondata su moderatamente aggiornati principi coloniali e la co-costruzione delle categorie e degli attributi di genere (e in particolare di quelli legati alla mascolinità). A partire da una concezione delle pratiche sportive come “passioni ordinarie” e come “pratiche di consumo”, vale a dire come attività cui ci si dedica per vocazione e che danno di conseguenza vita a un sistema di senso entro il quale i nostri gesti prendono valore, ho ripercorso le traiettorie culturali secondo le quali il surf diventa qui particolarmente significativo per i suoi praticanti. La tesi si divide in sette Capitoli. Nel Capitolo 1 si è cercato di offrire una panoramica critica introduttiva sulla letteratura esistente sul surf. Nel Capitolo 2 ho cercato di proporre una visione comprensiva del surf in quanto disciplina ibrida, che non può essere ridotta, se vogliamo renderne conto, a una sola delle categorie epistemologiche attraverso cui simili attività sono state lette, come quelle di “sport”, di “gioco”, di “danza”, di “performance”, eccetera. Nel Capitolo 3 vengono trattate le metodologie adottate e cerco di riflettere criticamente sul mio posizionamento sul terreno. Il Capitolo 4 e il Capitolo 5 analizzano le modalità socialmente e cultur, This thesis is an ethnographic analysis of surfing and the surfing culture on Australia’s Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia). In such a touristic region, the mild climate, warm water and the quantity and quality of waves have attracted many surfers, that have created a real surfing legacy. Surfing here contributes to shape the landscape and has become an integral part of the cultural heritage and of a socially constructed idea of “a life in the Gold Coast style”. Therefore, in the process of definition of the local surfing culture, both local and more wide questions are involved. Firstly, the particular relation with the beach and the ocean Australian people have historically developed deeply influence the way surfers enjoy riding the waves. Secondly, an “imagined” sense of Australian-ness rooted on the colonial history of the country is reflected and reproduced in the local surfing environment. Finally, surfing actively participate to the co-construction of the gender categories and attributes (especially those linked to masculinity). In this thesis, surfing is conceived as an “ordinary passion” into which practitioners invest their time and resources in order to give a deeper meaning to their lives. As happens to the consumption practices which are based on a free individual choice, surfing reflects the “character” and values of those who show their commitment to it. In this way, it constitutes a cultural “frame” in which the surfers’ gestures make sense. The thesis is divided in 7 chapters. Chapter 1 is a critical review of the existent scientific literature on surfing. In Chapter 2, surfing is conceived as a hybrid bodily practice that cross the boundaries between “sport” and “game”, “sport” and “performance”, “sport” and “dance”, and so on. Chapter 3 is about the methodologies adopted for this research. Moreover, a broader reflection on reflectivity and the body in the ethnographic study of sporting activities is proposed. The socially and culturally ways throu

Through the ethnographic analysis of surf culture on the Gold Coast, this paper examines the relevance of the surfer’s image in Australia’s representations. In fact, surfing epitomises some of the cultural traits that symbolically define the national identity such as the relation with nature, the beach, fitness and “larrikism”. Among these qualities, bravery represents the cornerstone of an exclusive and mainly manly—and white—sporting culture. As a seductive echo of the Romantic hero, surfers embody the ideal appeal of “fun” and freedom, as well as the competitive attitude of sport and the athletic allure of youth; with no contradictions, they also exemplify the individualism of the “neoliberalist ethos”, a virile kind of brotherhood and the discriminating dynamics which have characterized the history of sport in Australia. The Gold Coast is an ideal context to observe these processes in fieri, for its role in promoting competitive surfing and surfers’ representations in the Country

Breton wrestling (gouren) is a local style of stand-up grappling which is practiced in Brittany, France. It has an ancient tradition in the region, which is actually not easy to retrace with historical accuracy (Epron 2008). However, Breton wrestlers consistently refer to the generic and indefinite Celtic/peasant past of the practice when they talk about their activity (Nardini 2016a). Moreover, not only such an idealised history explicitly resonates in the rhetoric that describes and promotes gouren, but is also learned and re-enacted by Breton wrestlers through their gestures and daily practice. This manifestly emerges, for example, in the so-called "Mod Kozh" tournaments, the "old-fashioned" outdoor competitions. The way gouren is performed today hence involves a series of gestures, techniques, terms, and codified actions that, while evoking its Breton past, also underline the "bretonnity" of Breton wrestling; that is, its representativeness towards Breton culture and "character". However, these contemporary features of gouren have been mostly selected and reassessed over the last century, as a consequence of the gradual process of "sportisation", normalisation, and institutionalization of the practice started in the late 1920es (Epron & Robène 2006). In other words, through the modernisation of the practice, it has actually been possible to strengthen, redefine, and reaffirm it as an authentic expression of Breton history, culture and values (Epron, 2008; Nardini, 2016b). For these reasons, gouren can be considered as a "passion ordinaire", an "ordinary passion" (Bromberger, 1998). In fact, it gives practitioners meaningful motivations to get involved into the practice, investing a considerable part of their time, expectations, and social relations in it. Therefore, as a consequence of its hybrid conformation between competitive, institutionalised modern sport and traditional activity, Breton wrestling attracts new and assorted groups of devotees (e.g. women an

Un'onda, un surfista. La surf etiquette parla chiaro: non si può condividere un'onda; il surfista più vicino al picco ha la priorità. Questa regola comprende però delle eccezioni, in base alla posizione che ciascun surfista occupa nella gerarchia di ogni spot, che dipende prevalentemente dalla sua abilità nel "dominare" la lineup, misurata secondo i criteri estetici e performativi di una cultura sportiva prevalentemente bianca e maschile, strutturata sul modello neoliberista (individualismo, edonismo, self-empowerment). Negli affollati break della Gold Coast, questo ordinamento esclusivo limita l'accesso alle onde per i "kook" (gli "imbranati"), i turisti e le donne, che stentano ad affermarsi come soggetti sportivi in un immaginario in cui vengono spesso presentate come oggetti. Allo stesso tempo, però, esso definisce una cerchia di individui legittimati ad agire in quell'ambiente, promuovendone le relazioni e offrendo loro una cornice entro cui sviluppare un senso di appartenenza che, nel contesto sociale mobile della Gold Coast, assume un ruolo fondamentale. Il surf contribuisce infatti a delineare patrimonio e identità culturale della città. Sul campo, l'etnografo è dunque costretto a negoziare la propria posizione, mostrando di comprendere le gerarchie vigenti, e chiarendo che ciò a cui aspira non è condividere lo status di surfista, ma comprenderne le dinamiche. A un approccio diretto, tipo Wacquant, sono allora preferibili metodi diversi: osservazione; interviste; analisi delle narrazioni. La "surfing culture" tende infatti a strutturarsi in forma narrativa. Sentendosi protagonisti dei loro racconti, i surfisti li condividono volentieri con l'antropologo, che invece non può che assumere il ruolo di spettatore.

Sport consists not only in the submitting of athletes to training and strictness; many contemporary disciplines offer more free and playful ways to practice, embodying "alternative" sporting values. Among these, surfing plays a major role. Apparently in contrast with the consumeristic aspects of the practice (competitions, sponsorships, clothes, surfboard factories...), the "romantic" representations of surfing, surfers and the sea orient the surfers' motivations and dispositions. This paper analyses how these global aspects of surfing are "localised" in the context of Australia's Gold Coast, acquiring specific meanings. In effect, in a city characterized by rapid social changes and frequently considered as just a tourist resort, surfing became a strong instrument for the local claims of cultural identity, and contributed to shape the anthropological "landscape", defining a "constructed surfing place". Surfing iconography is ubiquitous here, and surfers from all over Australia and the world crowd the local breaks, trying to balance the opportunities of living in a city (jobs, relationships, infrastructures...) with the consistency of swells. Far from being a "countercultural" practice, surfing in the Gold Coast crosses the age and social boundaries; even if it still epitomizes a predominantly white and male activity. Moreover, the paper shows how the ambiguous nature of surfing ("soul surfers" vs. competitors; romantic image vs. consumerism; "localism" vs. surfing "nomadism") both reflect and contribute to produce the ambiguous aspects of the Gold Coast as a city (unregulated urbanization vs. environmental sensibilities; tourism vs. residents' claim for identity), as well as the Western nature/culture dichotomy.

Inspired by Loïc Wacquant’s methodology, I conducted an «observant participation» of Breton Wrestling (gouren), exploiting my judo expertise to actively participate to the training and competitive activities. In this paper I would describe how such bodily participation enriched my ethnographic experience, focusing on its epistemological utility in the analysis of the different meanings that similar gestures acquire in different wrestling contexts. In fact, sporting practices are not only series of biomechanical actions: they are gestures which make sense («techniques du corps»). The learning of a body knowledge is not only the transmission of a set of actions and rules, but also of a system of values and dispositions. From this perspective, “traditional wrestling” could be more than a physical activity: it could express, define and transmit a particular sporting culture, as well as a localised cultural identity, giving the practitioners a way to express and to (re)produce their belonging to a regional community in the context of globalised modernity. It also represents a cultural, ritual and a regulated way to interpret the physical confrontation between men, explicitly or implicitly linked to the social representations of fundamental cultural features, like violence, strength, masculinity, body, proxemics. By practising, I understood how Breton wrestlers shape, embody, and transmit their “Breton Wrestling culture” (the «gouren spirit»), clearly differentiate from other wrestling cultures (especially from judo, even though they are technically very similar) and evidently linked to the most emblematic features of what is supposed to be the Breton culture and “character”.

The competitive schedule of Gouren, the Breton Wrestling, is divided into two seasons. During winter, the wrestlers compete into indoor sports arenas, while in summer they wrestle en plain air, in outdoor sawdust arenas, confronting each other in a particular, commemorative way – called Mod Kozh, “old-fashioned” – which evokes the history of Gouren. The structures and the symbolic references of these two kinds of competitions clearly differ a lot. The aim of this paper is to focus on the different – and to some extent opposite – processes of space and history management carried out by wrestlers in each competitive pattern. In fact, winter and summer Gouren tournaments take place in an apparently contradictory frame between modernity and tradition, globalisation and localisation. On one hand, the winter indoor arenas can be described as a kind of «non-places» - impersonal and strictly operational places which appear to be similar in every part of the world, being the stages of many modern sports, and thus evoking the most modern aspects of Gouren. In order to feel familiar with such places, wrestlers enter, step by step, in the mood of competition, as well as in the “domestic” atmosphere which gradually characterizes the arena once the athletes and the public start to occupy it (a kinesthetic atmosphere, made of smells, sounds, people, similar to the atmosphere they regularly find in the gyms where they train). On the other hand, Mod Kozh tournaments take place in typical and recognizable settings, full of symbolic marks, which immediately convey the stereotypical representation of Breton culture and history, and which clearly evoke the supposed traditional features of Gouren. In such places, athletes immediately feel “at home”, since Brittany’s landscape and history are perceived as their “natural” habitat, their own home. Nevertheless, Mod Kozh Tournaments are actually a most recent re-«invention» than indoor competitions.

Sporting practices are not only series of biomechanical actions: they are also gestures which make sense. Accustoming the body to a set of actions also implies the transmission of a system of dispositions that can often transcend the time/space parameters of the practice. From this perspective, "traditional wrestling" could be more than a physical activity; it could express, define and transmit a particular sporting culture, as well as a localized cultural identity. It also represents a cultural, ritual and regulated way to interpret the physical confrontation between men, and these can be linked (explicitly or implicitly) to the social representations of some fundamental cultural values, like violence, force, masculinity, relationships and physical contact. This ethnographic research analyses how a traditional wrestling practice could define a sporting culture and give practitioners a way to allow them to belong to a social identity. From an anthropological point of view and through ethnographic participation, this essay analyses the processes of "(re-)invention" of gouren (Breton wrestling) especially from the province of Rennes, delineating the social, historical and cultural dimensions of this activity. For some Breton people actively involved in the process of "sportization" and institutionalisation of gouren (especially Dr. Cotonnec, who founded the first Breton wrestling Federation in 1930), Breton wrestling represented a local version of what gymnastics represented for the republican nation-state at the time of its attempts to build a national French identity through physical education: a different physical culture (or what Bretons considered the "authentic" physical culture of Brittany). Even now, gouren is considered an emblematic and typically Breton way to participate in sport. The research delineates the contemporary collective process of re-invention and of display of such a regional wrestling tradition. It especially focus on some key concepts, such a

La lotta bretone (gouren) è uno stile autoctono di confronto corpo a corpo che ha assunto, nel corso del secolo scorso, le forme regolamentate e istituzionalizzate di una pratica sportiva contemporanea. Nel saggio che segue, attraverso la descrizione etnografica di uno degli eventi più significativi della stagione agonistica, l’autore cerca di approfondire le dinamiche sociali e culturali attraverso le quali il gouren diventa, per quanti vi si dedicano, qualcosa di più di una semplice attività motoria: una pratica che ha un senso, una tradizione che veicola un’appartenenza, una disciplina distintiva, una cultura sportiva che si differenzia dalle altre per l’atteggiamento che promuove e per i valori che veicola, valori che rimangono fortemente ancorati alla cultura locale e a una concezione idealizzata del passato della Bretagna e del ‘carattere’ dei bretoni., Breton wrestling (gouren) is a strictly local wrestling style which is practiced in the Brittany region of France even now. During the last century, it has acquired the regulated and institutionalized shape of a contemporary sportive practice. Through the ethnographic description of one of the most important wrestling competition of the season, this paper try to analyze the social and cultural dynamics that could make gouren something more than a sport. For its practitioners, in fact, it could also become a meaningful practice, a tradition that transmit a social identity, a particular sporting culture that promote specific behaviors and values, that remain linked to the local culture and to an idealised conception of the past of Brittany and of the Breton ‘character’.