Reverse ethnographic situations: reflections on cultural constructions in the football context

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This study aims to explore episodes experienced within football spaces, triggering reflections on ethnographic relationships in the field and the need for a more balanced approach and appreciation of indigenous knowledge.
OBJECTIVE: To explore the perspectives of reversibility and culture in ethnographic contexts, highlighting the interaction between researchers and native participants in the co-creation of knowledge in Physical Education, and illustrating the different approaches to cultural constructions.
METHODS: The research was conducted through an ethnography. The data was generated through direct observation, formal and informal interviews, participant observation, and field diaries.
RESULTS: The main results of this study show that culture is collaboratively constructed in the relationships between ethnographers and natives. Both participants are active in the production of academic knowledge, through the sharing of symbols that give rise to heterogeneous and diffuse cultural constructions.
CONCLUSION: It is concluded that it is important to have an academic dialogue as balanced as possible between the observer and the observed in the production of knowledge, as well as it presents a broader reflection on this dynamic in ethnographic contexts.