Download - Sports In Brazil

These two historical landmarks coincide with the naval and subsequent colonial
expansion of Portugal, where there occurred a combination of factors which
typify the ecological unbalance of the world we now live in: population growth,
urbanization, technological development, and the predatory use of natural
resources. In this manner, Portuguese civilization incorporated into its history
the ambivalent sense of progress, this fundamental Western myth whose ultimate
results are now being questioned.
This resembles the recent developments in current sport, which shares with
progress a common Promethean origin (KATAOKA, A, “Sport and Prometheus’
Fire” in “Die Aktualität der Sportphilosophie”, Gebauer, G. (Ed.), Academia Verlag,
Sankt Augustin, 1993, pp. 49-62): one hundred and fifty years have elapsed in the
expansion which stemmed from the ideals of Thomas Arnold and Pierre de
Coubertin, and now sport activities in different countries are faced with the need
for the fixing of boundaries in compliance with environmental protection and
preservation. This tendency was expressed by scientific verification and petitionary
criticism in the early 1970s, and reached its highest point with the support of the
International Olympic Committee at the dawn of the 1990s.
In 1993, the University of Oporto, in turn, through an initiative of its Faculty of
Sport Sciences and Physical Education (FCDEF - Faculdade de Ciências do Desporto
e de Educação Física) decided to fill the gap in academic study on the novel
topic of “Sport and Environment” by approaching it in essential yet unprecedented
ways. The idea was not only to redeem the Portuguese tradition with regard to
the subject, but above all to comply with the sociocultural vocation to which the
FCDEF had been devoting itself since 1988.
Actually, the interpretation of current sport by the University of Oporto still
took a weak stand on an international level by choosing to favor the bias of
contemporary culture and historical comprehension, yet maintaining a scientific
basis as well. In this manner, under the initial direction of Professor Doctor Jorge
Olímpio Bento, whose work was complemented by that of Professor António
Marques, the FCDEF produced a series of symposiums and congresses whose
topics were later published as books on themes such as health and welfare
(1988), ethics (1989), Sport for All (1991), third age (1993), the city and nature
(1993), and children and adolescents (1994).
In addition to all these undertakings, the FCDEF headed the organization of
congresses for Portuguese-speaking countries where efforts were made toward
the establishment of an intercultural perspective of sport (1989, 1991, and 1992).
Scientists and scholars of international renown were welcome to participate in
debates and in the production of texts during these congresses as well as in the
thematic events. This book represents the conjugation of such a procedure, as it
was originally the outcome of an international symposium held in Oporto at the
beginning of 1993, having been completed in the latter half of 1995.
156 Meio ambiente, esporte, Lazer e turismo