Umkampfter Raum: Die Popularisierung des Fussballsports in Brasilien von 1890 bis 1930

In: Peripherie: Politik, Ökonomie, Kultur, Volume 30, Issue 117, p. 69-81

Abstract

This article argues that the arrival & diffusion of football (called "soccer" in North America) in Brazil between 1890 & 1930 can be interpreted as a process of spatial formation rather than a process of cultural imperialism & the result of the "exportation" of a British cultural product. In considering recent studies on the history of modern sport & its diffusion in different parts of the world, this article finds that the incorporation of football in Brazil depended on the agency of individuals, such as journalists, social reformers & "sportmen," & on social groups, such as immigrant communities in Sao Paulo & Rio de Janeiro. Even though the first football clubs were exclusive & hermetical spaces of urban elites, the article shows how members of other social groups contested the cultural space of football and, thereby, helped to reconstruct it along more inclusive lines. Adapted from the source document.