Identities and moralities in social networks. A digital ethnography of running in contemporary society

ABSTRACT

Gastón Julián Gil is professor of anthropology at the University of Mar del Plata (Argentina) and researcher at Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). He is author of Terapia de la felicidad. Etnografía del running en la Argentina contemporánea [Hapiness Therapy. Ethnography of running in contemporary Argentina] (2021), Las Sombras del Camelot. La Fundación Ford y las ciencias sociales en la Argentina de los ‘60 [The shadows of the Camelot Project. Ford Foundation and social sciences in Argentina during the decade of 1960] (2011), Universidad y Utopía. Ciencias sociales y militancia en la Argentina de los 60 y 70 [University and Utopia. Social Sciences and Militancy in Argentina during the 1960s and 1970s] (2010) and Hinchas en tránsito. Violencia, memoria e identidad en una hinchada de un club del interior [Fans in transit. Violence, Memory and Identity in football supporters from an inland club of Argentina] (2007).

KEYWORDS:

• Lifestyles
• sport
• identity
• ethnography

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. .Marchdel Plata has a stable population of more than 600.000 inhabitants.

2. . One of these groups is integrated by “serious runners”, whereas the other one is integrated mainly by recreational runners. This article does not focus on the differential modes of appropriation of running (Gil 2018). The researcher is not a member of any of these groups and he does not identify himself as a runner, apart from the fact that he has trained with some regularity and has participated in races before having studied systematically this lifestyle.

3. . The aforementioned sociotechnical network is made up of a great variety of human and non-human actors, all of which make possible a robust existence of the runner collective at a global level in our contemporary worlds. This sociotechnical network is so vast and complex that its in-depth study should be the subject of another article.

4. . Trail running constitutes a distinctive genre of races, in contrast to the more visible ones, that are the urban ones (like marathons). Most of these trail races are carried out in mountainous and pre-mountainous areas, but also in rural spaces and even in coastal passages.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT), Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (FONCyT). Project “Éticas, estéticas e identidades colectivas. Etnografías sobre estilos de vida en la argentina contemporánea”.

Notes on contributors

Gastón Julián Gil

Gastón Julián Gil is professor of anthropology at the University of Mar del Plata (Argentina) and researcher at Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). He is author ofTerapia de la felicidad. Etnografía del running en la Argentina contemporánea [Hapiness Therapy. Ethnography of running in contemporary Argentina] (2021), Las Sombras del Camelot. La Fundación Ford y las ciencias sociales en la Argentina de los ‘60 [The shadows of the Camelot Project. Ford Foundation and social sciences in Argentina during the decade of 1960] (2011), Universidad y Utopía. Ciencias sociales y militancia en la Argentina de los 60 y 70 [University and Utopia. Social Sciences and Militancy in Argentina during the 1960s and 1970s] (2010), Hinchas en tránsito. Violencia, memoria e identidad en una hinchada de un club del interior [Fans in transit. Violence, Memory and Identity in football supporters from an inland club of Argentina] (2007).