The Political Football Stadium: Identity Discourses and Power Struggles

by Basak Alpan (Editor), Albrecht Sonntag (Editor), Katarzyna Herd (Editor)

Overview

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 andbroadens what we understand as the political dimension of the football stadium.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031291432
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	07/01/2023
Series:	Football Research in an Enlarged Europe
Edition description:	2023
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Başak Alpan is Associate Professor in European Politics and Political Sociology at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.

Katarzyna Herd is researcher at the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences at Lund University, Sweden.

Albrecht Sonntag is Professor at the EU-Asia Institute at ESSCA School of Management in Angers, France.

Table of Contents

Introduction, Alpan and Sonntag.- 2. Demographic Trends in Ten Major European Leagues, Özgehan Senyuva and Ramon Llopis-Goig.- Part 1. Classical Stadium Politics in the Age of Fascism 3. The Stadio Mussolini or the Avatars of Football Stadiums, Paul Dietschy.- 4. What’s in a Name? The City of Stuttgart and the Toponymical Journey of its Football Stadium, Albrecht Sonntag.- Part 2. Contemporary Case Studies.- 5. The Stade de France and Wembley as Social Space: a Tale of Two Stadiums, Hugh Dauncey.- 6. The Global Branding of Camp Nou, Hunter Shobe.- 7. Spatial Aspects of Identity Differentiation – Stadiums in Bosnia, Özgür Dirim Özkan.- 8. Pitch Fever. Swedish Football and the Grass Dilemma, Katarzyna Herd.- Part 3. Protest Cultures and Crowd Control.- 9. Fandom as Contention: Çarşı Fans in Gezi Protests in Turkey, Ömer Turan and Burak Özçetin.- 10. Resistance Identitiesand Right-Wing Tendencies: The Politics of Polish Football Stadiums, Radoslav Kossakowski.- 11. Stadia as the Sites of ‘The Political’ : The Case of the Passolig in Turkey, Başak Alpan and Tanil Bora.- 12. The Football Stadium as a Space for Protest – Female Supporters in Persepolis, Caroline Azad.- 13. The Post-Pandemic Football Stadium, Jean-Michel Roux, Natalia R. de Melo, Cristiane de S. Duarte, Elson M. Pereira.

Editorial Reviews

The present collection contains a wealth of interesting material and will be a valuable resource not only for football enthusiasts and researcher but also for human geographers and sociologists with an interest in the relationship between sport and place. The editors and the contributors are to be commended.” (Alan Bairner, idrottsforum.org, January 18, 2024)

From the Publisher