Richard Giulianotti

Supporters, followers, fans and flaneurs : a taxonomy of spectator identities in football.

World football (or soccer) has undergone an intensive hypercommodification over the past decade or so. This article examines the impact of this process on forms of spectator identification with top professional football clubs. Drawing upon previous analyses by Taylor and Critcher (on football) and the theories of Bryan Turner (on body culture), the article advances four ideal types of spectator identity: supporters, followers, fans, and flâneurs. The broad trend in sports identification is away from the supporter model (with its hot, traditional identification with local clubs) and toward the more detached, cool, consumer-orientated identification of the flâneur.

Human Rights, Globalization and Sentimental Education: The Case of Sport

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Sport in Society on 06-09-2010, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1743043042000291686.

Forms of Glocalization Globalization and the Migration Strategies of Scottish Football Fans in North America

The concept of glocalization has the potential to advance sociological understanding of globalization with reference to social agency and cultural differentiation. In this article, we develop a four-fold typology of glocalization projects, with reference to relativization, accommodation, hybridization and transformation. We illustrate and elaborate this typology through substantive reference to specific migrant cultures, namely the North American-based supporters of two Scottish football (soccer) clubs. We advance a theoretical model that may be utilized and applied to account for the glocalization projects of different migrant communities in other domains of popular culture.

Glocalization, Globalization and Migration The Case of Scottish Football Supporters in North America

The concept of glocalization is used to analyse the ways in which social actors construct meanings, identities and institutional forms within the sociological context of globalization, conceived in multidimensional terms. This article seeks to advance the sociological grasp of glocalization processes through a field-work-rooted study of particular migrant, culturally defined social groups: North American-based supporters of the Scottish football teams Celtic and Rangers. The authors examine four features of glocalization in regard to the migrant experience: the transplantation of the original local culture to a new context; subsequent intracultural identities and practices; intercultural identities and practices; and the potential for the reproduction of ‘glocal’ identities. Further, they consider projects of glocalization that are attendant upon each of these features. A model is developed that facilitates future comparative and critical investigation in regard to the glocalization projects of social groups that are defined variously by ethnicity, migration or popular culture.

Security governance and sport mega-events: toward an interdisciplinary research agenda.

In the post-9/11 context, security issues have become increasingly central to the hosting of sport mega-event (SMEs). Security budgets for events like the Olympic Games now run into billions of dollars. This article seeks to advance the emerging field of SME security research in substantive and analytical terms. We identify three sets of issues and problems that are taking shape within this field: first, comparative issues in relationship to the Global North and Global South, notably given the growing number of SMEs set to be staged in the Global South; second, various risks and security strategies that are specific to different SMEs, including perceived terrorist threats, spectator violence, and broader risks associated with poverty, social divisions, and urban crime; and third, the security legacies that follow from SMEs, such as new surveillance technologies, new security-focused social policies, and security-influenced urban redevelopment. We argue that future research into SME security governance should be underpinned by a synthetic theoretical framework. This framework brings together three particular strands: first, a sociological approach that explores the _security field,_ drawing in part on Bourdieu; second, critical urban geographical theory, which contextualizes security strategies in relationship to new architectures of social control and consumption in urban settings; and third, different strands of risk theory, notably in regard to reflexive modernization, governmentality, and cultural sociological questions.

Scotland's tartan army in Italy: the case for the carnivalesque.

This short paper seeks to explain the activities of Scottish fans in Genoa and Turin, during the 1990 World Cup, by drawing on some key concepts offered by contemporary writers in the field of post-modernism and post-structuralism. These writers include Foucault, Derrida, Barthes and Baudrillard. All emphasize a re-empowerment of agency, evading more conventional forms of domination: Foucault within the domain of enabling discourse, Derrida on the open interpretation of the signs apparent meaning, Barthes on the ‘nature’ of jouissance and the body principle, and Baudrillard on the public toying with their media representation. It is argued that Scottish fan behaviour in Italy was structured by two opposing forms of ‘self-knowledge’, relating to either expressions of violent machismo or instrumentally ambassadorial conduct. The eventual triumph of the latter is most clearly shown through an application of Goffmans conception of ‘impression management’, as the social interaction of Scottish fans with other ‘teams’ in Italy is detailed chronologically. The paper concludes with some recommendations aimed at the relevant authorities, with a view to maximizing the internationalism of Scottish fans at future competitions.

Sport, peacemaking and conflict resolution: a contextual analysis and modelling of the sport, development and peace sector

Abstract In recent years, a wide variety of organizations (notably the UN and nongovernmental organizations) have used sport as an interventionist tool to nurture peacemaking across divided communities. This paper examines and theorizes these peacemaking initiatives across the expanding ‘sport, development and peace’ (SDP) sector. I begin by locating SDP projects within their historical contexts, and as significant elements within the emerging ‘global civil society’. I then set out three ideal-type models of SDP project; namely, the ‘technical’, ‘dialogical’, and ‘critical’. Each model is examined through a set of common social heuristics, such as its core objectives and paradigmatic methods. The models may be employed to analyse other peacemaking and development fields. The first two models are most influential among existing SDP projects; the potential benefits of the ‘critical’ model are also outlined.

Sport, Transnational Peacemaking, and Global Civil Society: Exploring the Reflective Discourses of "Sport, Development, and Peace" Project Officials

In recent years, there has been considerable political and public interest in the “sport, development and peace” (SDP) sector. SDP agencies employ sport as an interventionist tool to promote peace, reconciliation, and development in different locations across the world. This article examines how SDP officials view their work and the sector in general. The analysis situates the SDP sector in relation to contemporary transnational processes and the global civil society. The article draws heavily on wide-ranging primary qualitative research (interviews and fieldwork) with SDP officials who operate at different levels (from very local projects through to transnational SDP agencies) and in different settings, notably in Europe, the Middle East, the Balkans, and South Asia. Four key sociological themes were identified within the discourses of SDP officials, such as, the transnational ethics of SDP work, the anthropolitics of practice (notably in relation to user groups), the national and transnational ‘interrelationships of SDP officials, and SDP officials’ wider, transnational sector relationships. Various issues within each theme are identified and explored. The article concludes by reflecting on how analysis of these discourses serves to enhance understanding of transnational processes and the global civil society and, by suggesting some ways in which the SDP sector may be positively transformed.

Ethics, money and sport : this sporting mammon

Written from the contrasting yet complementary perspectives of sociology and philosophy, this book explores the far-reaching ethical consequences of the runaway commodification of sport, focusing on those instances where commodification gives rise to morally undesirable consequences. The authors consider three main areas of concern for participators and observers alike: the corrosion of the core meanings and values of sport, the increasing elitism of access to sporting commodities, and the undermining of social conditions that support sporting communities.Unique in its focus on the ethical dimension of the powerful economics of today’s sport, this book will be of interest, not only to those in the fields of sports studies and ethics of sport, but also to academics, researchers and students in philosophy of morality, sociology, and the ethics of globalization as viewed through the ultimate globalized phenomenon of modern sport.

The Sport, Development and Peace Sector: A Model of Four Social Policy Domains

This paper examines the ‘sport, development and peace’ (SDP) sector which has grown substantially at a global level over the past decade. The SDP sector is located conceptually within the broader ‘global civil society’, a highly contested policy field that features diverse political actors and ideologies. The main discussion sets out four ideal-types within the SDP policy domain that tend to be associated with specific institutions: first, neo-liberal social policies, as embodied by private or commercial interests, such as transnational corporations and forms of ‘corporate social responsibility’; second, ‘developmental interventionist’ policies associated with non-governmental and community-based organisations; third, ‘strategic developmentalist’ policies associated with national and international governmental organisations, and sport federations; and, fourth, social justice policies associated with new social movements and critical NGOs. Each of these domains is examined in detail. Three main types of interrelationship across the domains are then identified. The paper concludes by arguing for a more sophisticated understanding of sports policy capabilities, stronger cross-domain partnerships and a renewal of the SDP sector through a fresh focus on social justice issues.