SPORTS, INTERCULTURALITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE: NEW MODELS OF SOCIAL INTEGRATION

Sport can be an important gearing element for conflict solving. It is fundamental for intercultural integration because there is a universal language based on the collaboration and the cooperation among those who play. But it can also raise a strong group cohesion against the opponent, inside a dynamics more or less aggressive of some competitive societies in a framework of resistance-identities and cultural borders. Sport can represent a true motor of intercultural relationship that channels the daily social relationships around an identity-project. Social relationships, in fact, are among the main factor of the quality of life, together with the participation and the conditions of health, among others. It is evident that the sport practice plays an outstanding paper in the quality of the citizens' life. In this sense, the prefigurative socialization facilitates the rules of integration of mature generations, above all in contexts of cultural diversity. Youths themselves (when they have a successful social integration) are an exponent of quality of life for the society in general and for all the inmigrants, in particular. So, the programs of school sport and sport for all are "good practices", well as those focused on the elite sport that facilitate the participation of immigrants. In this sense, they can be a factor of cohesion, articulating intercultural practices and discourses of social integration.