Symposium Internationalism in the Olympic Movement- Idea and Reality between States, Cultures and People

Construction of Internationalism in Latin-America

Results of the Multicultural Research Program“Olympic Studies Reader”
Lamartine DaCosta & Ana Miragaya
Brazil Olympic Research Group
University Gama Filho - Rio de Janeiro

May 22nd, 2009

Approaching
the topic....

Methodological path:
Overlapping concepts = central idea, category, or class withsupporting facts for overlapping areas used to represent
information that is being compared and contrasted = results
expected: overlapping areas of commonality

Proposal: Pluralismis the nameof the ‘Olympic’
game ....as anoverlapping areaof commonality

MULTILATERALISM[politics]

PLURALISM[values]

MULTICULTURALISM[cultures]

INTERNATIONALISM[nations]

Developments

1. New foundations of values-led pluralism for IOA concerns
2. Knowledge Management as an adequate methodology for pluralism
3. Practical experiences – projects of common knowledge construction:• Worldwide Experiences and Trends in Sport for All (1999-2002)–
Internationalism & Multiculturalism• Atlas of Sports in Brazil (2003 – 2005)–Multiculturalism & Pluralism• Spain and Brazil Olympic Seminars (2006 – 2007)–Internationalism• Sport and Environment in Brazil (2007) – Pluralism & Knowledge
Management• Legacies of Sports Mega-events (2008-2009) - Knowledge Mgt &Internationalism
4. Olympic Studies Reader (2008 – 2010) – Multiculturalism &Pluralism• Joint project - China, Brazil and IOC
5. Conclusion – Towards a common construction of knowledge for
IOA future developments

New foundations of values-led pluralism for IOA concerns•This contribution aims to identify new foundations toInternationalism (nations) as an overlapping concept in relation toMulticulturalism (cultures) and Multilateralism (politics) from which
Pluralism (values) may stand as an area of commonality (i. e. sharing
common attributes, solidarity) providing long-term intercultural
exchange at different levels of practical values-led interactions.
•The Olympic Studies Reader - OSR (Beijing Sport University,
Universidade Gama Filho and IOC, 2008 – 2010) is an ongoing projectfocusing on multicultural interaction by means of common knowledge
construction, joining authors from the five continents. Five otherempirical projects similar to the OSR, developed since 1999,
suggesting that a shared-values and plural construction of knowledge
may act as a social construction with participants from different
cultural and educational backgrounds.
•Nestor Canclini’s thesis applied to the IOA refers to one place that
can initially provide and then later promote shared-values (Olympic &multicultural) and plural construction of knowledge; therefore,
creating decentralizing and favorable environments to make culturalinterchange with multiple local contributions (see citation next slide).

“Today’s problem in an intercultural and globalized world is not
related to the differences but to the inequalities. These can be reduced
when either common sense or symbolic values of understanding or
connection between culturally differentiated groups are adopted. In
other words, the intercultural option implies that one can clearly spot
what stands out or what is different in relationships of conflict
whereas the multicultural option accepts heterogeneity. Therefore, theepistemological problem of the interchange between cultures does notlie only in the definitions but, above all, in the environment andcontext where relationships take place” (p. 27; apud Clanclini, 2004)

Knowledge Management as methodology forplural and Olympic values-led social construction
Knowledge Management here is the creation of decentralized
and favorable environments to make cultural interchangewith multiple local contributions (tacit knowledge) in
combination with traditional, empirical and academicknowledge (explicit knowledge). This social construction isheavily dependent on people’s participation and access tosources, as depicted below in models proposed by Ikujiro
Nonaka e Hirotaka Takeuchi (2000s):

Practical experiences – projects of common knowledge construction:
Worldwide Experiences and Trends in Sport for All (DaCosta &Miragaya – Eds, 2002)–project in which Sport for All leaders shared
their experiences with sport researchers in equal conditions.
•Commercial book including 36 countries (fivecontinents) and 87 authors who followed astandard model of survey to construct eachchapter (one country = one chapter)•A comparative method was used to extract
similar occurrences common to the participating
countries from a standard collection of information•A final meta-analysis was made to
identify major trends of the area underinvestigation, reviewing frequency ofof similar occurrences from continent andtimeline perspectives (see next slide)•Authors’ profile: 52.8%-Ph.Ds.; 18.3% M.S.;
28.7% leaders and managers• Texts in English; 792 pages; support fromIOC, UNESCO and TAFISA

Obs. Meta-analysis made for thiscollective study could be developed
today by softwares such as: sphinx,stata, meta-test etc.

Atlas of Sports in Brazil (DaCosta et al., 2005)– Mapping of sports
practice and knowledge production in Brazil in terms ofgeographic and cultural approaches with 300 chapters; 410
authors from different professional and educational backgroundparticipated as volunteers; 17 editors worked in the elaborationand supervision of the text; nonacademic authors
were mostly
sport local leaders
or clubs andfederation’s managers;
P.E.
undergraduate students
worked infield surveys. Aggregationof knowledge
from all chapters wasrepresented by scenario methodology
at the end of the book edited in
paper in 2005 (920 double pages).
Post-investigation focusing on Atlas’s
volunteers suggested a senseof belonging connecting project’sparticipants
tosupported
their production.
Non-profit
projectby the Federal
Council of Physical Education-Brazil. From2007 to date, the continuous production of the Atlas
can be followed up on the website
www.atlasesportebrasil.org(Portuguese texts and English summaries)

Spain and Brazil Olympic Seminars (Moragas & DaCosta-Orgs,2007)–

Collective book on Olympic Studies
joining 103 Brazilian and Spanish
authors from 18 universities coordinated byUniversidad Autònoma
de Barcelona and Universidade Gama Filho Rio de Janeiro. Texts in Spanish andPortuguese with English abstracts. The
project aimed to find common points ofcollaboration among researchers andstudents from both countries for future
initiatives (Internationalism). This e-book
is not commercial and has free access at:

http://olympicstudies.uab.es/eng/brasil.asp?id_especial_content=9

Sport and Environment in Brazil (Almeida & DaCosta – Eds.,
2007) – texts in Portuguese with a special chapter in English
written by Miragaya, A., describing the meta-analysis
construction proposed by the project leaders.

Typical Knowledge Management
project joining 86 authors in 103
chapters in order to identify thestate of the art of sport &environment investigations inBrazil through a meta-analysis
focusing on regional and scientificapproaches (leisure and tourismincluded) from a timeline
perspective.
Non commercial e-book with freeaccess atwww.ufpa.br/numa/

Legacies of Sports Mega-events (DaCosta et al. – Eds, 2009)
Non-commercial book issued by theMinistry of Sport in Brazil – 75 authors (6from the UK, Germany and Spain) from 35
universities, organized as an epistemic
community, which means groups ofauthors with previous chosen topics
related to the central theme of the book,supervised by editors and referred in somesubjects to selected internationalspecialists. A seminar joining authors wasorganized aiming to discuss convergencesof the knowledge. The objective of theproject was to assimilate and associateinternational knowledge on mega-eventsand legacies to national researches onthese topics. Authors with different levelsof experience with the central theme wereaccepted. The paper version of the bookis published in Portuguese with English
summaries. PDF version is available at:www.confef.org.br/arquivos/legados/Livro.Legados.de.Megaeventos.pdf

Olympic Studies Reader-OSR (2008 – 2010) – Chinese Editors: Hai
Ren & Niu Jing; Brazilian Editors: DaCosta, L. & Miragaya, A.
•Academic project of Beijing Sport Universityand Universidade Gama Filho – Rio de Janeiro(non commercial) with support from the IOC,
with 86 authors from the five continents in three
volumes dated 2008, 2009 and 2010.
•Olympic values-led texts selected orrecommended to candidates to join the project
have been focusing either on multiculturalism oron multidisciplinary approaches, respectively toinnovative trends or to traditions for Olympic
Studies concerns.

Website for free accessto e-book version of OSR:

•Plurality in this case is mostly referred tomulticultural interaction by means of common
knowledge construction, as seenin texts elaboration by groups of authors withmultiple national roots. In all, values diversity
in Olympic grounds demands plural approaches
not selection, taking into account Kekes’s thesis(see next slide)

http://www.bsu.edu.cn/new/web/files/OLYMPIC STUDIES READER.pdf

Kekes’s thesis for plurality of values (OSR, p. 31)

Conclusions – Towards a common construction of knowledge for
IOA future developments•The continuation of the IOA short-term commitments with participantsfrom its events may have as a basis decentralized projects ofshared-values and plural construction of knowledge, keeping
the traditional spirit of belonging usually promoted in Olympia• Common construction of knowledge in IOA model may take place using
pluralism as a platform for internationalism, multiculturalism andmultilateralism, creating connections between states, cultures and people•Individuals and groups from former IOA interventions may stand as
epistemic communities as a result from motivational environment
successfully implemented in different regions of the world.

Many thanks for your attention!
lamartine@terra.com.br
www.atlasesportebrasil.org.br