BASKETBALL: A WORLD IN A WORD - Come lo sport può divenire un mezzo di integrazione

Sport participation is increasingly being promoted by political institutions and non-governmental organizations as a powerful tool to tackle a wide variety of social problems, such as social exclusion. Sharing this spirit, an Italian professional basketball club promoted a local basketball program to favor the social integration of asylum applicants residing in the city, aiming to benefit participants in terms of individual wellbeing, language skills, and social capital. This paper evaluates the result of this particular sport-for-development program (SFD), using a longitudinal quasi-experimental design and a mixed-methods approach. The analysis combines qualitative insights from participant observation and in-depth interviews with traditional statistical tools and social network analysis gathered through panel surveys. The mixed evidence emerging from the research points towards the ambivalent nature of sport as a mechanism of social intervention, which entails not only opportunities but also risks.