Potentialities of oral sources for the historical study of sports and urban sociabilities. The case of children's football in Bariloche

Abstract

In this article we expose some potentialities of oral testimonies as fundamental sources for the study of sports and urban sociabilities. In addition, we present a case of historical reconstruction based on the contribution of oral stories. We use interviews as a technique to work on the sociabilities built around football activity in neighborhood clubs in the city of Bariloche at the end of the 20th century. Specifically, we address the process of institutionalization of children's football in that town through the testimonies of former leaders of the activity. These stories favor an analysis that links sociabilities around sport with social and institutional dynamics between the years after the return of democracy in Argentina in 1983 and the stage of neoliberal hegemony during the 1990s. They bring us closer to both the associative dimension of the clubs and the level of informal sociability, which present few records in written documents. Oral history also enables the approach to the experiences and subjectivities of the popular sectors. The stories of the members of the clubs introduce us to the knowledge of the neighborhood solidarity networks from their memories and evaluations, that are inaccessible through other sources. We consider that the testimonies reinforce the legitimacy of recent history research focused on social relations in the neighborhood, built on sports and everyday life.