O andebol como estratégia de inserção social de raparigas filhas de imigrantes cabo-verdianos

Abstract

This dissertation is a case study of a handballistic project which here is analysed as a social inclusion strategy for girls, daughters of Cape Verdean immigrants. The project is approached from three perspectives of development taking into account the physical environment that the young athletes were involved in (Pedreira dos Húngaros and Outurela neighborhoods, or both) throughout 22 years of the existence of this project. 22 athletes were interviewed. First, it aims to identify the competences acquired in handball, which may be transferred to personal, familiar, social, educational and professional life; secondly, it aims to identify young girls’ motivations for the practice of sports; and, last, it aims to analyse the mentors who have contributed to make sports an inclusive social practice. Theory is supported by concepts that highlight three issues: the places of social exclusion, as proposed by Stoer, Magalhães e Rodrigues (2004); the process of inclusion through sports, proposed by Bailey (2005;2008) e Maxwel (2013); and the learning processes as being an elemental tool for the positive development of youth, according to Fraser et al (2005) and Coutinho (2008). The content analysis is structured in five sub-areas based on the athletes’ discourse: housing conditions and community life, family environment and the relationship between parents and daughters, school memories and its path, sporting and associative life, and the processes of identity and belonging. The results suggest that handball (I) contributed to the athletes’ personal and social development, (II) transformed itself through empowerment reinforcing identity and promoting social inclusion, and (III) created synergies among the athletes, their family and community allowing an improvement on the social route of the athletes and an affirmation on a culture of dual belonging - Cape Verdean and Portuguese.

Date of Award	17 Mar 2015
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Isabel Vieira (Supervisor)