Football Research in an Enlarged Europe

This book focuses on the football stadium as a political space and examines how stadiums can be viewed as the objects and catalysts of political change. Rather than acting as functional constructions designed merely to host football games, stadiums stand out in the urban landscape as landmarks that serve as gathering points for large communities.

The manifestation of the political in football stadiums can be heard in the discontent voiced by supporter activism; in the use of stadiums for national and local identity politics; in attempts to instrumentalize emotions by both totalitarian and democratic regimes; among fan groups in political uprisings, and in the surveillance of fans through e-tickets and seat allocation.

This edited collection brings together a variety of case studies from a wide range of different contexts. Contributors stem from political science, sociology, history, anthropology, human geography and urbanism. As such, the book redefines and broadens what we understand as the political dimension of the football stadium.

This book uncovers the elusive phenomenon of football fan identities by using a combination of comparative analysis and triangulation of data obtained through discourse analysis of online message boards and survey research in four European country/league contexts and in-depth interviews conducted in eight select fan scenes.

The book illustrates that politically relevant developments are often set in motion in supposedly peripheral social fields, and that identities are adapted and transboundary linkages can be established and nurtured through the game of football.

The book will be of interest to researchers, scholars and students of Sociology, Political Science, Sport Studies, European Studies and International Relations.