Managing alternative sports: new organisational spaces for the diffusion of Italian parkour

The article explores the encounter between parkour as an unstructured and culturally innovative practice, challenging both physical as well as organisational spaces, and UISP (Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti / Sport for All Italian Union) as a sport promotion body open to organisational and cultural experimentation. Drawing on a multi-method qualitative approach (analysis of documentary material, interviews and focus groups), we look at the role of UISP in the diffusion and legitimation of parkour within the Italian context, investigating the interplay between the cultural and organisational logics of both this new practice itself on the one hand, and the organisations that are trying to accommodate it on the other. The incorporation in a sport-for-all organisation like UISP provides traceurs with a safe and legitimised space, which is however ‘loose’ enough to maintain the fluidity of the practice. Nonetheless, by enabling the coexistence of different and competing definitions and uses of parkour, this fluid organisational space reproduces tensions among traceurs and weakens their voice in UISP’s decision-making processes

The limits of inter-religious dialogue and the form of football rituals: The case of Bosnia-Herzegovina

The difficulties with interfaith dialogue are linked, at least in part, to the lack of ritual forms (consisting of rules, ceremonial idioms, liturgy, and repertoires of action) designed to unite and integrate the "meta-group "formed by the various religious communities. By means of ethnographic research conducted in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the author studied the mechanisms with which, under particular conditions, some forms of collective ritual were able to create opportunities for the re-integration of the Bosnian population, which had been profoundly divided after the terrible war of 199295. Comparing the forms of religious rituals and those of sports ritualsin particular, of football ritualsthe author develops some considerations that can be applied to the general debate about inter-religious dialogue. The comparison brings to light some of the limits and difficulties that religious institutions encounter in giving life to an interfaith dialogue that directly and concretely involves the members of different communities. © 2007 Social Compass

Keeping it liminal. The Mondiali Antirazzisti (Anti-racist World Cup) as a multifocal interaction ritual

© 2013 Taylor & Francis. This paper examines how social mixing and celebration of diversity can be enabled through sports festivals marked by their carnivalesque atmosphere. Our analysis draws on a longitudinal ethnographic study of the Mondiali Antirazzisti (Anti-racist World Cup), a non-competitive football tournament and intercultural festival featuring the yearly participation of hardcore football fans (ultras), migrant groups, third-sector associations and other informal groups. We consider how the multifocal ritual form of the event helps to create a liminal space in which discrimination and stereotypes can be temporarily challenged. The sources of collective effervescence are multiplied by placing sport games within a wider range of other leisure and cultural activities, thus promoting internal diversity and the inclusion of outsiders. Additionally, social boundaries are also blurred by not emphasising the competitive dimension of the sporting activities, making sporting categorisations more fluid, and breaking down the separation between protagonists and spectators. Nonetheless, considering the transient character of liminality, we also investigate problems and limitations implied by the pursuit of these objectives. It is concluded that, despite a certain degree of self-referentiality, the festival fosters the spreading of anti-discriminatory cultures by enhancing the participants’ reflexivity and feeding their commitment in generating spin-off activities in different local contexts

Resin-based catalysts for the hydrogenolysis of glycerol to propylene glycol

Three alkysulfonic resins were obtained by co-polymerization of 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-propansulfonic acid with N,N-dimethylacrylamide and ethylene dimethacrylate (the cross-linker), with respectively 4, 20 and 40% mol cross-linking degree (DAE 26‑4, DAE 26‑20, DAE 26‑40). These resins were employed as acidic components in physical mixtures with Ru/C (5 %, w/w) or as supports for bifunctional ruthenium and copper catalysts, to be used in the hydrogenolysis of glycerol (20 %, w/w, in water). The physical mixtures were more efficient than the bifunctional catalysts, but temperatures as high as 200 °C are required to obtain an appreciable activity. However, in view of their relatively high thermal stability in comparison with the sulfonated polystyrene-divinylbenzene ion-exchange catalysts employed so far they can withstand this temperature, while Amberlyst 70 cannot be employed above 180-190 °C. Interestingly, the catalytic systems based on physical mixtures of DAE with Ru/C resins at 200 °C are much more selective towards propylene glycol than those containing A70 are at 180 °C

EXAFS in situ: The effect of bromide on Pd during the catalytic direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide

The direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide is catalyzed by palladium catalysts supported over different solids. With the aid of a suitable plug-flow reaction cell, we carried out a preliminary X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (EXAFS) characterization of a palladium catalyst supported on the commercial resin K2621 under reaction conditions (in situ). Whereas the catalyst, which in the dry catalyst presents metal Pd and PdO when fresh, is practically unaffected by the reaction medium (methanol) or by the reaction mixture (CO2/H2/O2, 86/10/4, v/v) it undergoes an apparent reduction of part of PdO to metal Pd and some metal leaching during the reaction in the presence of bromide ions. These findings suggest the role of bromide ions as enhancers of the selectivity of palladium catalysts in the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide could not be limited to the selective blocking of the sites responsible for the undesired formation of water, but could also entail phase modifications of the active metal. ©2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved