Football Fandom

Malgrado le immagini degli stadi di calcio inglesi mostrino ormai da qualche decennio un pubblico estremamente composto, assistere alle partite addirittura senza barriere a separarlo dal campo da gioco (fatto per esempio ancora molto raro in Italia), a tutt'oggi il tifo d'oltremanica è spesso associato al terribile fenomeno degli hooligan. Impossibile dimenticare i numerosi episodi di violenza, culminati nella strage dell'Heysel del 1985. L'autore ne ricostruisce la nascita e l'evoluzione, a partire dagli epocali cambiamenti che il gioco del calcio ha vissuto in Inghilterra con l'inizio degli anni '80 dell'Ottocento.

College sports coaches and administrators can use open letters to repair images and weather crises, especially during losing seasons. Our rhetorical analysis uses Benoit’s typology of image repair to reveal three primary strategies attempted during losing seasons: evading responsibility, reducing offensiveness, and corrective action. We take note of how open letters distributed via electronic media channels widen the audience of such letters, but also, complicate issues of timing and of targeted audience analysis. We offer five implications for scholars and practitioners, including the importance of audience analysis, the value of corrective action, the ineffectiveness of attacking accusers, and the unique value of transcendence in sport communication image repair rhetoric.

Extant literature of association football (‘soccer’) consumers has tended to focus on supporters of top-tier teams, or on psychological or experiential factors. Contrastingly, this study was concerned with identifying customer segments based on consumer value and benefits-sought, but particular to supporters of lower-league clubs.  Using survey data from the three tiers of English professional football below the English Premier League (the Championship, League 1, and League 2), we refine and update Tapp and Clowes (2002) framework of Premier League fans, exploring the behaviour of supporters of lower-tier professional clubs.  From our findings, we provide a segmentation framework that can be applied by marketers as part of the business and marketing planning process.  We provide a detailed picture of the views and consumption habit of lower-league soccer supporters, and identify an additional segment, the ‘Enthusiast’.  We believe that this is important because much of the existing research has focused on the English Premier League (EPL) which we argue represents an atypical elite in comparison to the majority of other professional tiers of football in the UK or the rest of the European area.  By focusing on lower-league football we provide a more universal study.

Attending live sporting events is a popular leisure and entertainment activity in contemporary European societies, none more important than football (the sport Americans refer to as soccer). For example, according to Deloitte’s (2014) annual report about the football industry, the top 20 European clubs generated combined revenues of over €5.4 billion in 2012-13, including almost €1.2 billion in gate receipts. However, due to myriad aspects such as the difficult economic environment in many countries, the increased competition of other leisure/entertainment activities, the importance of selling broadcasting rights, and the development of new technologies, clubs now face the challenge of retaining and even increasing this high demand. In this sense, clubs need to look for the games as regular opportunities to strengthen the link with current and prospective spectators by providing memorable consumption and/or entertainment experiences that include more than just the competition between two teams on the field, court, ice, track, or better yet, the stage.

This thesis is a conjunctural analysis of the relationships between the changing socio-economic setting of contemporary Brazil and dislocations in football supporter cultures. Two interrelated lines of analysis are developed to understand these relationships: the first focuses on the ongoing economic restructure of the Brazilian football industry, and the second explores the implications of the large-scale adoption of new technologies for ordinary football-fandom practices. The first part of this study is a combination of critical political economy with discursive analysis and explores the modes of commercialisation and power relations structuring this sector. The second part is a contemporary cultural analysis that applies digital methods and traditional qualitative strategies to investigate the forms of organisation and expression of football supporters. Generally speaking, this thesis draws on theoretical perspectives and concepts from cultural studies and the field of sociology of sport.

In terms of findings and conclusions, the political-economy analysis indicated that we have today in Brazil a context similar to what has been called a hypercommodified phase of football in Europe. In Brazil, two elements are central for understanding this period: the 12 high-priced seating stadiums built or renovated for the 2014 FIFA World Cup; and the recent escalation in the top clubs’ media revenues. The intensification of this market-centred model has also resulted in many conflicts and controversies. In particular, I analysed the fan-run campaign #ForaRicardoTeixeira (Get out Ricardo Teixeira) and the small protest #VergonhaMinasArena (Shame on you, Minas Arena) as examples of the current imbalances and contentious issues.

The cultural analysis suggested that in terms of organisation there has been a shift in football fan cultures toward more decentralised forms of coordination in collective actions such as stadium performances. In the past, these types of actions were mostly planned and executed by organised groups of supporters with considerable levels of institutionalisation. In Brazil, these groups are called torcidas organizadas (TOs). Today, these formations are still important for the coordination of performances and other collective practices. However, the emergence in the Brazilian context of less-institutionalised groups of fans and the popularisation of football-related online communities since the early 2000s have been implicated in a more diverse and fragmented environment, with new and old actors dialoguing in increasingly complex ways.

In terms of expression, new technologies are also related to a significant increase in the number of amateur media-production projects led by fans, individually or in groups. Football supporters who produce blogs, YouTube channels with original content, photos, digital radio stations and podcasts about their teams are often leaders of their communities and important articulators for the decentralised coordination of on-site collective performances. From analyses of social-media conversations, in-depth interviews with key fans of a single club (Clube Atlético Mineiro), and close readings of the textual productivity of these very same supporters, I argue that the work of these new leaders brings to a hypercommodified and highly globalised culture a pinch of regionalism and authenticity.

This research aims to examine football fans’ awareness of their team sponsors and to compare sponsorship awareness  between season ticket holders and casual spectators. Data was collected from among fans of a professional football team and results revealed that spectators recall ‘top of mind’ those sponsors with their logo displayed on the team shirts. Thus, being visible from the stadium stands is important to ensure recall rates. Fans are typically able to properly recognise sponsors and non-sponsors of their team. However, some competitor brands engaged in football sponsorship are incorrectly recognised as sponsors of a team. Finally, the number of brands recalled and recognised correctly by season ticket holders is significantly higher than for casual spectators. The research findings, managerial implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed.

This article examines the relationship between the fan community of Arsenal Football Club and time-space distanciation. Since the end of European imperialism, the English football club has been quietly colonising the minds of spectators everywhere, introducing them to cultural forms that had once been unique to England. Now a global phenomenon, the North London club has an estimated 113 million fans worldwide. Using Benedict Anderson’s concept of “imagined community,” I analyse the conditions that have enabled fans from Lagos to Los Angeles, and from Beijing to Bangalore, to identify with a sporting institution based in a country they may have never visited. To explore the paradoxes of this long-distance relationship, this article analyses information about Arsenal that appeared in newspapers, blogs, and social media websites from 2004 to 2014. The study concludes that, with the advent of digital technologies, Arsenal is simultaneously embedded in English culture and accessible to the millions of fans living in the interminable spaces beyond its country’s borders. In an age marked by constant social and technological change, fans find in the football club a universal community capable of contributing to their sense of ontological security.

Keywords:  imagined community, identity, football fandom, Arsenal, time-space distanciation, mediated experience, liquid
society, globalisation.

This article problematizes the role played by a football fan club—Çarşı—in one of the largest social movements in Turkish political history, the Gezi Park protests of June 2013. The authors suggest that as “unusual suspects” in social movements, Çarşı’s role in the Gezi Park protests can be understood with the conceptual toolbox provided by theories of contentious politics. Since action repertoires, or “known sequences for acting together,” are key to contentious politics and social movements, Çarşı’s organized and effective performance during the Gezi Park protests shows how previous encounters with the police can be decisive in terms of social upheavals. This study suggests that Çarşı members, who were already accustomed to making ethical judgments on a variety of issues both political and non-political, should be taken as a prominent example of how supporters on terraces and fan clubs facilitate the framing processes described by the social movement literature.

The Black Country, a region that is only loosely defined geographically, is an area located in the West Midlands of England, which its inhabitants claim holds a distinct geographical and cultural personality. However, despite the territory's perceived uniqueness, popular imaginations of England have often overlooked the Black Country's historical and socio-cultural individuality. Therefore, given those working in a number of disciplines have recognised local football spectator communities to be significant cultural arenas, through which localism is performed and remade, this article explores the role of fandom in imagining, preserving and/or contesting notions of ‘Black Countryness’. Utilising semi-structured interviews, netnography and participant observation, as key methodological techniques, this study explores how local-spectator communities at Walsall Football Club (one of three professional football teams based in the Black Country) continually (re)negotiate a collective sense of local and regional identity. By adopting a critical approach, guided by Hall's notion of ‘cultural identity’, this research, in line with other similar studies, highlights the significant role football fandom plays in imbuing particular locales with meaning. However, more importantly, by understanding football fandom is emergent from complex, productive and interconnected cultural processes, this article is also critical of local football spectator communities and their exclusionary, as well as inclusionary, practices and customs.

Football supporters worldwide organise protests, petitions, campaigns, workshops and congresses and are engaged in political lobbying. These expressions of supporters’ activism are nourished by both discontent with developments in football culture and an effort to change them. The aim of this methodologically driven article is to critically examine the role of digital ethnographies in exploring these processes. To reflexively explore the complex realities of recent transformations in football culture, this research study complemented offline data with online data. The use of digital data is discussed along the following dimensions: informational, representational, epistemological and relational. It is argued that the analytical dualism employed to critically discuss the relationship between online and offline spheres should be complemented with empirical duality to fully understand the role played by the digital sphere in social reality.

Football’s ‘everyday fans’ and inter-club fan rivalry have come into academic focus in recent years. The tensions between ‘imagined communities’ of fans are based on unique and complex socio-cultural and historical factors, and therefore each rivalry is unique and complex. This paper is based on a broader ethnographic study exploring those factors underpinning an important 130-year rivalry in the heart of England’s second largest city between fans of Aston Villa and Birmingham City, which has not yet received any academic attention. It looks specifically at one of the key emerging themes, territory, finding that the struggle for control of space in the city represents a struggle for power and (perceived) superiority between the imagined communities, which creates tension and conflict and further reinforces fan rivalry. This informs our sociological understanding of this case study and further provides an in-depth analysis of the role territory plays in rivalry and conflict between groups.

This research examines the liberating and socializing effects of football on women by exploring the history of the female fan group 'Purple Violets', who have been passionately devoted to the football team 'Orduspor' from 1967 to today. The women in the fan group, who never missed matches in the 1970s and 1980s, slowly disappeared from the stadium. This transformation was also related to the gender politics of the current government. The article is derived from a documentary project which involves interviews with 29 key players: female fans, football players and team managers, and archival research, This study suggests that football fandom played an important role in the socialization and liberation of women in Ordu in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the contemporary commercialization and politicization of football, bad management of the team and the gender discriminatory policies affect female football fandom negatively and keep them away from the stadium.

Celem tekstu jest przedstawienie wyników badania poświęconego zjawisku kibicowania piłkarskiego w Polsce, które pozwolą a) określić skalę zjawiska kibicowania piłkarskiego w Polsce oraz b) dokonać jego ogólnej charakterystyki przez określenie cech demograficznych kibiców i związku z tym c) wskazać możliwe obszary do dalszych badań. Wyniki przedstawione w artykule pochodzą z sondażu przeprowadzonego na losowej, reprezentatywnej próbie Polaków (N=1002) przez Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej, do którego dołączony został blok pytań poświęcony kibicowaniu piłkarskiemu w Polsce.

HOOLIGANISM OR FIGURATION IN THE CIVILIZING PROCESS?
RECEPTION OF THE LEICESTER SCHOOL AND THE WORLD OF POLISH FOOTBALL FANS
The main aim of this article is to consider the topicality of the theoretical achievements of the Leicester School, formed by the students and continuers of Norbert Elias’s ideas, with Eric Dunning at their head. The author presents the main theses on stadium hooliganism which Dunning and his team formulated on the basis of a socio-historical analysis. The English researchers connect the behaviour of football fans with their class origins, with patterns of ‘street’ socialization, with masculinism, and with violence constituting an important aspect of daily life. They show that the social environment from
which the majority of hooligans originate has not been included in the broader stream of the civilizational process. Then the author, in describing Polish football fans, makes use of certain elements of Norbert Elias’s process sociology (constituting Dunning’s analytical tool). History shows that the sub-culture of football fans is ‘becoming civilized’, although not in a uniform manner. The concept of figuration could be a valuable analytical tool for describing the community of football fans, as it is not a society separated from the outside world, but remains in a specific interdependence with it. In the
analysis, the dichotomy between ‘settlers’ and ‘outsiders’ is also helpful.

""Description
'Mercenaries', 'cheats', 'destroying the soul of (English) football', 'destroying the link between football clubs and their supporters': foreign football players have been accused of being at the origin of all the ills of contemporary football. How true is this? Foreign players and football supporters: The Old Firm, Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain is the first academic book to look at supporters' reactions to the increase in the number of foreign players in the very clubs they support week in week out. It shows that football supporters identify with their club through a variety of means, which may change or be replaced with others, and provides the most comprehensive view on football supporters' attachment to their club in the European Union, following the increase in European legislation. Divided into three case studies on Glasgow (Celtic and Rangers), Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in London, the book adopts a multidisciplinary approach to chart the evolution of the link between supporters and club between 1995 and today. It is based on extensive research through the press of three nations, as well as interviews with officials and supporters. It provides an excellent read for students and researchers in Sports Studies, Politics, European Studies, French Studies and other Social Sciences, or to anyone interested in one of the most original institutions of contemporary western societies: mass spectator sports.
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Commissioned by Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), this report evaluates the value of anti-racism work carried out during the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals in Germany by FARE and its partners. The report concludes that given the constraints, the work was overall successful but could be more focused in certain areas in the future. Recommendations are made for the following FIFA World Cup, the first to be held on African soil, where a unique opportunity may exist to utilise football's popularity to challenge racial prejudice.

[ESP] Este artículo profundiza en el estudio antropológico de la construcción de identidad en torno al equipo de fútbol del Athletic Bilbao. Su singular «filosofía», marcada por la defensa de «lo local», sigue vigente en un contexto donde el balompié está cada vez más globalizado. La investigación está basada en una serie de entrevistas semiestructuradas a 25 aficionados del equipo, residentes en Castilla y León (nacidos y no nacidos en el País Vasco), y aborda los motivos de adhesión y pertenencia al club, su interpretación de la política de jugadores y su posicionamiento ante el creciente mercantilismo que opera en el fútbol. La pesquisa muestra que las vinculaciones al Athletic Bilbao vienen marcadas por un modelo tradicional, en el que los clubes actúan como representantes de su entorno, combinado con una apreciación de «lo propio» como baluarte frente a las lógicas mercantiles que imperan en el balompié moderno. Consecuentemente, la identidad del Athletic Bilbao se encuentra marcada por una transversalidad de interpretaciones que los aficionados destacarán en función del momento y las circunstancias.
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[ENG] This paper delves into the study of the construction of identity around the football team Athletic Bilbao. Its unique «philosophy», defined by the defense of «the local», is still in use in a context where football is becoming increasingly global. This research is based on a series of semi-structured interviews with 25 Athletic fans residing in Castilla y León (born and not born in the Basque Country), and addresses the reasons for joining and belonging to the club, their understanding of the team’s policy on players and their positioning on the rising commodification of football. The study shows that belonging to Athletic Bilbao is defined by a traditional model, whereby clubs act as representatives of their surroundings. This model mixes with an appreciation of «the self» as a bastion against the market rules reigning over modern football. Consequently, Athletic Bilbao’s identity is marked by a transversality of interpretations that fans highlight depending on the moment and the circumstances.

The paper presents results of research on the issue of football fans associations in Poland in context of the civil society. The analysis is divided into three areas: (1) the phenomenon of formalizing football supporters groups; (2) activities made by Supporters’ Trusts; (3) the issue of fans motivation to initiate activities that are wider than social role of football fan. Nowadays, football fans are not only supporters whose role is only limited to attending football games or cheering the players. Groups of football supporters have been institutionalized and professionalized. Fans, especially football fans, organize and form associations (called Supporter Trusts). Supporter Trusts activities, in addition to dealing with fans issues, are also invested in a variety of other initiatives such as charity, patriotic or integrative actions.

ABSTRAK Media sosial dan kreatifitas budaya penggemar dapat dianalisis dengan pendekatan multidisiplin untuk membongkar ideologi dominan yang melatarbelakangi praktik budaya tersebut. Selain itu, kajian terhadap media sosial juga dapat menunjukkan bagaimana ranah budaya populer seperti akun penggemar sepak bola ternyata tidak terlepas dari usaha afirmasi diskursus Keislaman dominan yang berkembang di Indonesia sejak beberapa tahun belakangan ini. Akan tetapi, apabila diskursus Keislaman terutama yang erat kaitannya dengan tubuh (atau yang berkaitan dengan aurat di media sosial) biasanya dikaitkan dengan perempuan, dalam penelitian ini justru dibicarakan dalam konteks budaya penggemar sepak bola yang didominasi penggemar laki-laki. Pergeseran atau pembalikan diskursus ini dilakukan akun @plesbol dengan cara menarik jumlah penggemar melalui representasi diri sebagai akun yang sarkastik ketika membahas persepakbolaan. Oleh karena itu, analisis dilakukan dengan metode kajian tekstual da...

Despite the relocation pressures that usually restrict time available for leisure activities, football fandom is one distraction new immigrants continue to enjoy
after moving to a new country. In this paper, I explore my own connection to the Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (WSWFC), a relationship that helped me integrate into a new society after what had been a challenging migration experience. I use an autoethnographic approach and a theoretical background that characterises football fandom as a metaphysical experience of the ordinary people. The story of my involvement with the WSWFC and its fans shows how
football fandom can be an effective tool for new immigrants, assisting with socialisation and integration into the new society.

Relations between sport and religion constitute an intriguing field of research. The aim of this paper is to analyze the historical development of a religious face of Polish sport (mostly football). Religion – I mean here the Catholic Church as Poland is an almost completely Catholic country – pervades sport in different ways. The teachings of Pope John Paul II, who appreciated the role of sport in developing the all-around integrated personality, are still often recalled in Poland. The paper includes several sections. Firstly, the author discusses the policy of the Church towards sport in the last decades; then, the question of sports chaplaincy in Poland is presented. Next, public manifestations of religious beliefs of football players, managers, and fans (e.g. crossing oneself or fans’ choreographies with religious overtones) are analyzed. The main focus of interest is, however, very popular religious pilgrimages organized (since 2008) by the fans of most Polish clubs. My main objective is to examine some selected cases, representative of Polish football fandom of the last decades and showing the phenomenon clearly. The study has largely been based on historical and statistical data. The information about this period (2008-2017) was garnered mainly from newspapers and fans’ publications.

This paper examines how football, sport and other cultural fields are characterized by complex interrelations between 'citizen' and 'consumer' identities. Our analysis centres specifically on critically examining and developing the concept of 'citimer' (citizen-consumer) with respect to activist supporter groups within European professional men's football. First, to establish the structural and cultural context for our analysis, we argue that the emergence of citizen-consumer identities in football has been driven by five underlying processes: globalization, commodification, securitization, mediatization, and postmodernization. Critical football fan movements have responded to these changes through greater reflexivization and politicization. Second, drawing on the broad academic literature, we develop the concept of the citizen-consumer (or 'citimer') and introduce its relevance to football. Third, to provide a more nuanced understanding of the citizen-consumer, we explore how this 'citimer' identity is constructed in two ways: 'from below' (by fan groups themselves at everyday level) and 'from above' (by clubs, governing bodies, media and other powerful forces within the football system). In both instances, we find that the citizen and consumer aspects of the citimer identity are interrelated in complex ways. Fourth, we conclude by highlighting the political reflexivity of citimers, and areas for future research. Our analysis draws on extensive data collection: with football supporters and officials in the Czech Republic, England and Italy, and at the wider European level; and, through access to diverse primary and secondary documents (e.g. policy papers, fanzines, and online forums). Our findings may be applied to examine citimer identities, practices and social relations not just within football and sport, but in many other cultural fields, such as art, communication, drama, fashion, film, and music.

THE FAN STUDIES NETWORK 2014 CONFERENCE

27-28th September 2014
Regent’s University London, UK 

Keynote Speakers:
Dr Paul Booth (DePaul University)
Dr Rhiannon Bury (Athabasca University)
Mr Orlando Jones (star of Sleepy Hollow, appearing for a virtual Q&A)

For two years the Fan Studies Network has provided a fruitful and enthusiastic space for academics interested in fans and fandom to connect, share resources, and develop their research ideas. Following the success of our first symposium in November 2013, we are delighted to announce the FSN2014 Conference, taking place over two days at Regent’s University London from 27-28th September 2014.

FSN2014 will feature three fantastic keynote speakers. The first will be Dr Paul Booth, author of Digital Fandom: New Media Studies (Peter Lang, 2010), Time on TV: Temporal Displacement and Mashup Television (Peter Lang, 2012) and editor of Fan Phenomena: Doctor Who (Intellect, 2013). His newest book, Media Play: Pastiche, Parody, Fandom, is forthcoming from University of Iowa Press. The second keynote will be Dr Rhiannon Bury, author of Cyberspaces of Their Own: Female Fandoms Online (Peter Lang, 2005) and currently writing her second book for publication with Peter Lang, entitled Television 2.0: New Perspectives on Digital Convergence, Audiences, and Fans. We are also incredibly delighted that Mr Orlando Jones, an American film and television writer, producer, and actor who currently plays Captain Frank Irving in Sleepy Hollow (Fox, 2013-) and vocal proponent of fan culture, will be joining us via Skype to participate in a virtual Q&A session.

We invite abstracts of no more than 300 words for individual 20 minute papers that address any aspect of fandom or fan studies. We also welcome collated submissions for pre-constituted panels. We encourage new members, in all stages of study, to the network and welcome proposals for presentations on, but not limited to, the following possible topics:

- Activism and fandom
- Producer-audience interactions
- Non-Western fan cultures
- Ethics in fan studies
- Defining fandom
- Anti-Fandom and Non-Fandom
- Fan use of social media platforms
- Fandom (and) controversies
- The future of fan studies

We also invite expressions of interest (100- 200 words) from anyone wishing to host a short session of ‘speed geeking.’ This would involve each speaker chairing a short discussion on a relevant topic of their choosing, and then receiving extensive feedback, making it ideal for presenting in-progress or undeveloped ideas. If you have any questions about this format of presentation, please contact Richard McCulloch at mccullochr@regents.ac.uk. 

Please send any enquires/abstracts to: fsnconference@gmail.com by SUNDAY 1st JUNE.
Notifications of decisions will be sent out w/c 16th June.
You can find out more information on
http://fanstudies.wordpress.com/ or talk about the event on Twitter using #FSN2014.

Conference Organisers:
Lucy Bennett and Tom Phillips (FSN chairs)
Bertha Chin, Bethan Jones, Richard McCulloch, Rebecca Williams (FSN board)

Despite the relocation, pressures that usually restrict time available for leisure activities, football fandom is one distraction new immigrants continue to enjoy after moving to a new country. In this paper, I explore my own connection to the Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (WSWFC), a relationship that helped me integrate into a new society after what had been a challenging migration experience. I use an autoethnographic approach and a theoretical background that characterises football fandom as a metaphysical experience of the ordinary people. The story of my involvement with the WSWFC and its fans shows how football fandom can be an effective tool for new immigrants, assisting with socialisation and integration into the new society.

This paper explores a dialogical operationalization of identity fusion in the context of football firms. An in-depth life story interview with a longstanding member of a football firm involved in several violent episodes was qualitatively analyzed. The variety of positions of the self (I-positions) as well as the dialogical relations established by such positions were examined under themes associated with identity fusion, in an attempt to understand pro-group radical violent behavior. Results suggest that a core coalition of internal I-positions and external We-positions favoring extreme ultra violence appeared to dominate the participant’s self-system. This coalition seemed to have soft boundaries among the positions compounding it and, at the same time, rigid boundaries with other positions of the self-system, operating as an I-prison, preventing alternative counter-violence voices to be heard and promoter or meta-positions to emerge. Considering that functionally equivalent forms of identity fusion have been identified in radical football violence and terrorism, this knowledge can contribute to tackle the pathways for engaging in extreme violence in favor of a group/organization. Moreover, it can be used to develop more effective programs to promote individuals’ de-fusion from different groups, whenever group adherence proves dysfunctional and risky for themselves and/or others.

The football “fandom field” (FF) excludes women fans (WF): it is a gendered arena that manages, preserves and reproduces dichotomous gendered conceptions  based on the model of the male as the ‘authentic fan’. The current growing presence of WF in the FF problematizes the normative gender distinction that defines football fandom as a male terrain. In studying the interrelation between gender and fandom as a performative practice, the research focuses on the embodiment of fandom. To date, research on fandom has neglected the body, and research of the body has neglected fandom. In exploring this interlock, we adjoin Butler’s notion of performativity with Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. Deploying these theories, we reveal variegated ways in which WF perform bodily practices against  the model of the ‘authentic fan’ while considering  their performance as freed and not obsessive (relatively to males fans).
HKJ football club endorses a liberal-ideological agenda putting forward alternative fandom practices based on anti-violence, anti-racism and anti-sexism. This agenda encourages women to join the FF and enables to study the bodily experiences and practices of women fans in the making.
The research has been jointly conducted by 3 women, fans of HKJ.  In addition to auto-ethnographies, the research employs participant observation, in-depth interviews, analysis of documentary material and  the fans’ internet forum

Meditation and Football Fever. On the Potential, Limitations, and Closings of Autoethnography
Abstract:
The article undertakes discussion within dispute between the representatives of “evocative” and “analytical” fields of autoethnography. The main assumption of the text is that these two approaches can be combined, using the advantages of each. The author points out the limitations of the “evocative” approach and criticizes its main assumptions concerning the lack of commitment to development of theory in social sciences. It is considered reasonable to take into account reflective analysis on the role the researcher has in the research process. It does not seem, however, that researcher’s entanglement in normative and social structure can prevent the formation of more general explanations. This can be achieved due to diversification of available empirical data, for example, in the form of interviews with other members of the culture, or content analysis. Emphasizing of evocative values need not be in contradiction with the pursuit of exploring the order of social organization and indigenous cultural patterns. In the article, some samples from research fields are considered. Autoethnography of meditation and fandom culture enables not only to expand the knowledge on these phenomena but also points out limitations and advantages of the method at hand

The concept of mediatization has proved remarkably popular in the past decade, although recent critiques have challenged its media-centrism, ahistoricism, and conceptual clarity. In this article, we draw on the work of those who suggest that mediatization is best deployed as a means of understanding particular social domains and the ways in which institutions and actors orientate their activities towards media. Using association football, or soccer, as our focus we offer a bottom-up perspective using data gathered from research workshops with young people in England. These not only demonstrate the extent to which football is followed through a range of media platforms but also how broader understandings of the game are shaped by these engagements. Moreover, we adapt insights from recent phenomenological approaches to media to focus on the practical, embodied forms of knowledge and habit that shape how football is currently played, followed, and debated.