Alexis Sossa RojasPontificia Universidad Católica de Chile | UC · Instituto de Sociología
Alexis Sossa Rojas
Dr.
I currently have a postdoc position and I am working on issues related to physical activity, sports and older adults.
About
35
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Introduction
I am a sociologist with expertise in qualitative research. My research interests concern the development of interpretive sociological/anthropological understandings of the body-self-society relationship in different fields, but mainly of sport and physical culture.
Additional affiliations
March 2023 - present
Publications
Publications (35)
This article presents the results of almost nine months of ethnographic research on the relationship between physical exercise and health in older people in the post-COVID-19 context. Via exploratory–descriptive qualitative research and the use of a convenient sample, I shed light on this relationship using the stories and life experiences of 40 ol...
Este artículo reflexiona sobre la relación ejercicio físico y personas mayores, concentrándose en el enfoque de cuerpo/emociones como eje para guiar la discusión. El objetivo es entender a través de las experiencias corporales de personas mayores cómo viven el proceso de envejecimiento, en el marco del deporte y el ejercicio físico. Este artículo s...
Competitive sport is significant for various aspects of individual and societal well-being. Overall, it provides a platform for athletes to showcase their abilities, inspire others, and create memorable moments of triumph and sportsmanship. However, with all the multiple benefits that sport entails, there is a black sheep, or as expressed in the bo...
In this paper, I recall reflections from and discussions with both older people who exercise actively and with personal trainers who specialise in working with older people to address two essential elements that should be clarified: First, what are we talking about when we discuss sport, physical exercise and physical activity, especially when we r...
RESUMEN En este artículo nos planteamos investigar cómo se entendía el cuerpo en la época colonial chilena a través de los relatos de Cautiverio Feliz (1673), como fuente principal, y de Historia General de Reino de Chile, Flandes indiano (1674) e Histórica relación del Reyno de Chile (1646), como fuentes secundarias. A través de un análisis de dis...
It is known that rates of participation in sports and physical activities among older adults decrease as they get older. This article focuses on the experience of the ageing body at the gym, and it is one of the few that focuses on a little-studied group of frequent gym-goers. Based on an ethnographic work of more than two years in Amsterdam, I exp...
En el presente artículo se analizan algunas consideraciones metodológicas para abordar al movimiento en los estudios al ejercicio físico y al deporte desde una perspectiva cualitativa. La mayoría de las actividades de los seres humanos en general y, de los deportistas en particular, no son estáticas, por el contrario, sus cuerpos están en constante...
This article explores human movement and sport as areas full of organic and socio-cultural meanings and implications for social and health sciences research. Physical activity and the human body's movements must be promoted given the series of social and health benefits they provide. By putting the body in the foreground, I highlight kinaesthetic s...
The purpose of this article is to understand how frequent female gym-goers work out in different gyms in Amsterdam, how they understand and live their bodies, and what working on their bodies means to them. Based on a qualitative study, data were collected from twelve months of fieldwork with eight women from different nationalities. My findings co...
In this dissertation, the body, its movements, and its way of perceiving/feeling/creating the world are fundamental to understanding both the individual and society. Nevertheless, this study is not about the body per se, but about culture and experience insofar as these can be understood from the standpoint of bodily being-in-the-world. I study the...
Resumen: En este trabajo nos proponemos comprender la asociación entre participación comunitaria, confianza en la comunidad y percepción de protección de derechos ciudadanos en América Latina y el Caribe. Para esto utilizamos datos de AmericanBarometer 2012 de LAPOP para 18 países de la región. Nuestro estudio diferencia entre dos tipos fundamental...
In this paper, I present empirical data from ethnographic work carried out in a Dutch gym, where people, especially students, from different countries work out, interact and explore ideas and practices related to their cultures and to other people's cultures. I will analyse and explain four things: first, the social skills required to successfully...
The fitness industry has undergone an explosive growth in recent decades. Some reasons for this are related to the increase in leisure time in the developed world and the importance attached nowadays to having a young-looking fat-free body. This article, based on ethnographic data from Santiago, Chile and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, seeks to add nu...
The study of the body has led to more than five decades of varied and prolific production by social scientists. However, their theoretical and methodological approaches have been as diverse as these investigations. This article, using concrete examples, reflects on the theoretical and methodological implications applied to the study of the body and...
The study of the body has led to more than five decades of varied and prolific production by social scientists. However, their theoretical and methodological approaches have been as diverse as these investigations. This article, using concrete examples, reflects on the theoretical and methodological implications applied to the study of the body and...
This article discusses which values and meanings are generated by gym goers related to working out constantly. Based on a portion of my master's thesis, I present the results of an ethnographic work about how they understand and value effects such as pain, sweating, and tiredness, caused by work out. I will also explain how some of the features of...
This article discusses which values and meanings are generated by gym goers related to working out constantly. Based on a portion of my master's thesis, I present the results of an ethnographic work about how they understand and value effects such as pain, sweating, and tiredness, caused by work out. I will also explain how some of the features of...
This article discusses which values and meanings are generated by gym goers related to working out constantly. Based on a portion of my master’s thesis, I present the results of an ethnographic work about how they understand and value effects such as pain, sweating, and tiredness, caused by work out. I will also explain how some of the features of...
Resumen El artículo busca problematizar una situación recurrente y no del todo discutida en los escri-tos que se apoyan en Foucault para el análisis de los procesos de subjetivación en Latinoamé-rica. Los planteamientos analizados por Foucault, fueron hechos para una realidad europea, o en específico, para el caso francés. En este sentido, presenta...
El presente artículo tiene como objetivo articular dos perspectivas algo separadas en el debate sociológico actual: la sociología de los movimientos sociales y la sociología del cuerpo. En este sentido, buscamos problematizar tres cosas. Primero, por qué la relevancia de la categoría cuerpo, sobre todo, del desnudo, como forma y/o recurso en las pr...
The purpose of this ethnographic research was to understand the culture, meanings, practices and corporality derived from recurrent training of 11 people who, without being professional athletes, workout more than four times a week, with an average of 1.5 hours a day, keeping this routine for a period exceeding one year. The research was carried ou...
El presente artículo analiza la etapa denominada arqueológica de Michel Foucault. Puntualizando principalmente cómo en esta etapa es entendido el concepto de libertad desde la noción foucaultiana de discurso. Se aborda, en este sentido, la etapa arqueológica de Foucault desde tres áreas. La primera, nos habla de cómo se erige lo diferente, lo anorm...
El presente artículo trata sobre la construcción del cuerpo en el pentecostalismo chileno, a partir de las representaciones sociales y culturales que el pentecostalismo elabora sobre el cuerpo. Frente a esto, exponemos que el cuerpo ha sido contemplado como residencia en una doble imagen, como templo y como tugurio. Luego analizamos cómo la corpora...
This article aims to explain uprising from the Foucault’s postulates, how, in descriptive terms, the phenomena of consumption that promote thinness and youth work as positive characteristics, that would lead us to a state of health, beauty and happiness. In this respect, this article plans to be an application of the philosophy of the French author...
Antofagasta since the 20´s became the leader of the saltpeter economy, definitely supplanting Tarapacá. Nevertheless, its leadership coincides with the beginning of the saltpeter crisis. During that decade the called central or Bolivia canton, which industries were located along the railway from Antofagasta to Bolivia (fcaB), was developing while o...
This article is about the construction of the body in the Chilean Pentecostalism, from the social and cultural representations that Pentecostalism elaborates over the body. Against this, we expose that the body has been considered as residence in a double image, as a temple and as a hut. Immediately afterwards, we see how the corporality is symboli...
The present article analyzes the so called ethical stage of Michel Foucaut. It seeks to understand what this phase is about and its main features. We approached, in this respect, pointing out how, for Foucault, the self care starts with care of the body, of the spirit and the knowledge from an own perspective. This leads to rethink conceptions such...
Though Marx is not an author who is at the apex of the current sociology, not even in terms of sociological theory, in this article one seeks to present the contributions of Marx as current in his theoretical and epistemological expositions, within an area that has come taking relevancy today, and authors such as Turner (1989) or Le Breton (2002),...
Abstract In this article takes place an exploration about observations made to the body as a sociological phenomenon in the theoretical thinking of Marx, Durkheim and Weber, assuming that this topic has not been taken in account particularly by any of the previous mentioned authors. After approaching these concepts, several scopes these analyses ha...
