Reflexiones sobre las versiones del Karate en una ciudad metropolitana de São Paulo

This article is part of a broad study that seeks to understand the meanings of combat sports in a metropolitan city in the state of Sao Paulo. For this, we chose the city of Cotia, which has dispar-ate socioeconomic and demographic realities. As part of this project, this article aims to identify the versions of Karate that circulated in different practices of the daily life of the city, between the second half of 2018 and the first half of 2019. For our theoretical-methodological approach, we will be using the actor-network theory in conjunction with constructionist social psychology. It was possible to identify three versions of Karate being performed at this location: as a competi-tive modality, as a practice for life (Budo) and as an opportunity. Research suggests that there is no single type of karate — homogeneous, stable and permanent — or different perspectives on it, but that it is multiple, a product of the practices in which it is involved.