From Soccer Field to Relational Field

Miguel Fernandes

This work consists in an investigation about the role of the Soccer Field in the contemporary diffuse territory of Vale do Ave. In this work, the popular dimension of the Soccer field is a pretext to a unpretentious interpretation of the social and space transformations that the collected sample is subjected, translating them in territorial interpretation material.
“The players have been replaced by a cow and a thousand squares” and “The Turf has been transformed into bare and the turf transferred to decorate roundabouts” are the two chapters that structure and work on the collected information. In the first one, we report on the multiple forms and uses of the field – in a cyclical timeline – between football and social; in the second we discuss the relations and transformations between field and territory in a linear timeline. As a result of the large scale of the chosen sample, the work presents a catalog of the 54 Soccer Fields interpreted, that are compiled in a second volume where the information collected through the investigation process is systematized.