I started my international board experience at ICSSPE Editorial Board 2009. Although I have been visiting several countries, universities and colleagues since 1996, it was a wonderful feeling to get in touch with people from different countries and cultures to discuss interesting common international affairs. Sport is an excellent theme to put people emotionally involved and discussing a huge majority of issues and polemic situations. There we see what the differences among are, several ourselves, cultures, race, religion and gender ideologies. This is beautiful when we are open-minded people.
At the same time, we feel that it is a very complex environment. There are now more any simple trues. If you listen carefully, everything looks like we see so many “the trues”. Then, it is when you feel something is really changing your mind. Reality is much more than the sum of different perspectives. Complex? Yes, but we need updated frameworks to deal with this.
Finally, it is confusing. Yes, listening to other perspectives takes you to a deeper understanding level exactly when we thought we knew it all. It is a bit confusing, for a while and it pulls our bad ideologies saying things such as: oh! this is just in Africa we can see these different things; Asians are strange when it comes to philosophical issues; North America always thought they are superiors and have the best scholar’s thinkers. No, that is not true, Australians are the great heritage of sports people in the world. But, South America is different, and they have wonderful thoughts about sport development and democratic participation. Wait, wait! Everyone is wrong. Europe is the central continent, more developed and they are the ancient sport thinkers.
Who is right? NOBODY, ISCPES president says.
The new presidency wants to transform this thinking pattern. Nobody is completely right, and everybody needs all the others. That is what we are here for.
Oporto 40th Summit will represent a turn on our history. We will be able to gather new researchers and other sport lovers to compare what we have been doing. Are we really doing the right research? Are we asking the right research questions? Aren’t we missing the important things in sports studies?
We will provide a new type of forum where young researchers can ask their questions, those that block them all the time and have a chat with some senior researchers and keynotes that will help them to find joint research projects under ISCPES influence.
This is what we can announce now: new ideas, new site image and new logo for the next 4 years.

Pedro Guedes de Carvalho
Covilhã,, Portugal