The relationship between sport conceptions and the public policies of the sector in municipal management: an analysis from managers

The aim of this study was to identify the sports conceptions of municipal public managers and their interrelation with the actions promoted in the subfield of public sports policies. This is a qualitative, descriptive and field research, in which a semi-structured interview with municipal sports managers from a central micro-region of the state of Paraná / Brazil was applied. The data were categorized and analyzed using Content Analysis. The study shows that the concepts of sport are not compatible with the types of actions promoted by public institutions. It is inferred that in the habitus of agents within the subfield, there is, to a certain extent, the internalization of objective representations and traditional ways of doing politics in sport. This scenario implies weaknesses in regional sports development, due to the unilateral nature of the sector's policies, especially in the context of small municipalities, which to a certain extent, depend on local government initiatives.