Author(s): EASTMAN, P., CARREIRÃO, M., Institution: UNIVERSIDAD DE LA REPÚBLICA, URUGUAY, Country: URUGUAY, Abstract-ID: 1687

Introduction
Sociocultural studies of sport in Latin America have long noted the marginalization of sport within the Social Sciences and Humanities. Recent theoretical renewal has repositioned sport as a phenomenon shaped by social, political, and cultural dynamics (Alabarces, 2014), fostering new research agendas (Hang, Hijós & Moreira, 2021).
While women’s participation in sport has gained increasing attention, women’s handball in Latin America remains underexplored from a sociocultural perspective. This study examines how amateurism, professionalism, and violence are articulated in the development of women’s handball across the region.
Method
This qualitative study draws on five in-depth semi-structured interviews with key actors in elite women’s handball across Latin America, including current and former national team players and head coaches selected through purposive sampling. Following an ethnographic perspective (Guber, 2001), data were analyzed using thematic analysis to explore how participants interpret the sport’s development through the lenses of professionalism, amateurism, and violence.
The project received approval from an institutional Research Ethics Committee and written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Results
Findings indicate that amateurism functions as a structural condition shaping sporting trajectories and everyday practices. Narratives reveal an ethic of passion and sacrifice that normalizes precarious conditions, including unpaid or underpaid labor and the combination of elite training with work or study. Such conditions are rarely framed as institutional shortcomings, but as inherent to sporting commitment.
Accounts also point to the normalization of symbolic and psychological violence, reinforced by weak institutional regulation and the absence of formal reporting mechanisms.
Discussion
Amateurism emerges not merely as a transitional stage toward professionalism, but as a moral and organizational regime that produces subjectivities oriented toward endurance and self-sacrifice while shifting physical, emotional, and economic costs onto athletes.
The relationship between amateurism and violence suggests that abusive practices are not exceptional deviations, but embedded in everyday organizational dynamics shaped by precarious institutional frameworks and limited accountability. Understanding these dynamics is essential for critically rethinking current debates on professionalization and safeguarding in women’s sport.

References
Alabarces P. Héroes, machos y patriotas. 2014.
Guber R. La etnografía: método, campo y reflexividad. 2001.
Hang J, Hijós N, Moreira V, eds. Deporte y etnografía: pensar la investigación social entre los géneros. 2021.