Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Towards a Sociological Understanding of Football Hooliganism as a World Phenomenon

Towards a Sociological Understanding of Football Hooliganism as a World Phenomenon In this article a sociological diagnosis of football hooliganism as a world phenomenon is given. The author uses mainly English (newspaper) data about football violence (in and outside England) as an empirical base to explore how hooliganism can be theorised and understood. These data can usefully serve as a rough indication of the worldwide incidence of football hooliganism in the twentieth century. The author favours the figurational/process-sociological approach to football hooliganism which is historical and developmental. It also involves an exploration of the meanings of hooligan behaviour via an analysis of verbatim statements by the hooligans themselves, locates the football hooligans in the overall social structure, especially the class system, and examines the dynamics of the relationship between them and groups in the wider society. It is important, nevertheless, to stress that it is unlikely that the phenomenon of football hooliganism will be found always and everywhere to stem from identical social roots. As a basis for further, cross-national research, it is reasonable to hypothesise that the problem is fuelled and contoured by, among other things, what one might call the major 'fault-lines' of particular countries. Effective policies are urgently needed if the great social invention of football is to be protected from the serious threat posed by a combination of hooligan fans, complacent politicians and money-grabbing owners, managers and players. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research Springer Journals

Towards a Sociological Understanding of Football Hooliganism as a World Phenomenon

Download PDF
22 pages

Loading next page...
1
 
/lp/springer-journals/towards-a-sociological-understanding-of-football-hooliganism-as-a-gzM0WimsHF

References (25)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by Kluwer Academic Publishers
Subject
Energy; Criminology and Criminal Justice, general; Political Science
ISSN
0928-1371
eISSN
1572-9869
DOI
10.1023/A:1008773923878
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In this article a sociological diagnosis of football hooliganism as a world phenomenon is given. The author uses mainly English (newspaper) data about football violence (in and outside England) as an empirical base to explore how hooliganism can be theorised and understood. These data can usefully serve as a rough indication of the worldwide incidence of football hooliganism in the twentieth century. The author favours the figurational/process-sociological approach to football hooliganism which is historical and developmental. It also involves an exploration of the meanings of hooligan behaviour via an analysis of verbatim statements by the hooligans themselves, locates the football hooligans in the overall social structure, especially the class system, and examines the dynamics of the relationship between them and groups in the wider society. It is important, nevertheless, to stress that it is unlikely that the phenomenon of football hooliganism will be found always and everywhere to stem from identical social roots. As a basis for further, cross-national research, it is reasonable to hypothesise that the problem is fuelled and contoured by, among other things, what one might call the major 'fault-lines' of particular countries. Effective policies are urgently needed if the great social invention of football is to be protected from the serious threat posed by a combination of hooligan fans, complacent politicians and money-grabbing owners, managers and players.

Journal

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research – Springer Journals

Published: Oct 15, 2004

There are no references for this article.