Fútbol, violencia y política en la Argentina

ética, estética y retórica del aguante

Abstract

This paper presents the conclusions of a research developed in the last 10 years about violence phenomenons in argentine football. Using different methodologies (historical information analysis, the analysis of the media, the ethnography and participant observation, and the sociological interpretation), we have developed a deep research on the field, that allows us to unfold different and relevant interpretations: about the political subjets that take part in the area (hinchas, the police, the sport journalists, sport managers and politicians) and about the characteristics of the violent actions. Besides the deep relationships of the subjects on the political field- but not in the way of ideological adscriptions but in the complicity and clientelism- the research allowed to characterize the category of aguante, originally invented by the argentine hinchas- so it is a native category- and then extended to other common action fields- specially among the youth and popular sectors. The aguante is constituted as an ethics, an aesthetics and a rethoric, in which the violent action acquires legitimacy and instrumentality; it also describes a central mechanism in the construction of overflowed masculinities, not limited to the popular classes but that crooswise different social classes.
Keywords: football; violence; popular cultures; masculinity