Football Fandom, Mobilization and Herbert Blumer: A Social Movement Analysis of F.C. United of Manchester

Millward, Peter; Poulton, George

doi:10.1123/ssj.2013-0132

Cited by 25 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Contemporary football supporter activists are political because they clearly aim to intentionally alter the existing relations of political power and bring about social change (Brough and Shresthova, 2012), even if their activities are often circumscribed by the domains of their clubs, local communities, or the sport. They do that through collective action which is often unmatched in numbers in any other sphere of political or social activism (Millward and Poulton, 2014). This collective action is fuelled by continuous mobilisation which is most often highly intensive because it strikes at the core of participants' social lives (Numerato, 2015).…”

Section: Social Foundations Of (Political) Football Activismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From these ad hoc crisis-driven roots, however, Our Hajduk grew into an association with a much broader agenda. To use Herbert Blumer's terminology, applied by Millward and Poulton (2014) to great effect in their study of FC United of Manchester supporters, Our Hajduk passed from its social movement stage of unrest to the stage of 'formalization'. Its leadership is staffed by highly educated and professionally successful supporters who thus defy the popular stereotypes associated with football supporters in the region.…”

Section: Our Hajduk and The Struggle For Clean Football In Croatiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Football activism as political contention: Contextual determinants of membership in the association of supporters of Hajduk Split

Glaurdić

2019

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

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Where do politically activist football supporters come from? What are the social conditions under which they are successfully recruited and mobilised? This article answers those questions by analysing a unique dataset of more than 43,000 members of Our Hajduk – the association of supporters of the Croatian club Hajduk Split – as well as a host of data on the communities they live in. The analysis shows that Our Hajduk thrives in exactly the same areas where most other social, civil and political organisations thrive: among the more educated and more socio-economically successful. Most importantly, the analysis shows that the pattern of Our Hajduk membership closely follows the patterns of political affiliation and participation in Croatia’s electoral arena and is guided by the opposition to political players who have dominated Croatian football and turned it into a social field marked by corruption and mismanagement.

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Section: Social Foundations Of (Political) Football Activismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Our Hajduk and The Struggle For Clean Football In Croatiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Football activism as political contention: Contextual determinants of membership in the association of supporters of Hajduk Split

Glaurdić

2019

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

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“…We have attempted to discuss the escalation of the conflict and the wave of engaged football fan activists' protests (claims-making activities) that took place as part of the popular sport culture, along with the methods that were undertaken in Poland to resolve the problem. Our approach to the issue is similar to that of Millward and Poulton (2014), who used Blumer's theory to analyse the fan community of FC United of Manchester and its role in communication between English football fans and the British government, thus testing the theory's viability for analyses of such social mobilization phenomena.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A war between football fans and the government from the perspective of Herbert Blumer’s collective behaviour theory

Jasny

Lenartowicz

2021

Sport in Society

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This study uses Herbert Blumer's theory of collective behaviour and stages of the collective social definition of the problem to analyse print media discourse concerning domestic politics-related fan activity among Polish football fans prior to the Euro 2012 football championships finals. We describe and explain each stage of the escalating conflict, the wave of football fan protests, political reactions, and the measures undertaken to resolve the problem. A qualitative textual content analysis of media discourse was applied to 68 press articles that were published in the first half of 2011 in Przegląd Sportowy, the oldest sport newspaper in Poland. The results lead to the conclusion that all five stages of the process were clear-cut during the analysed period of political tension between the fans and the government, and that Blumer's concept proves to be a viable means of analysing social problems related to contemporary sport fandom.

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“…Notwithstanding the antipathy of much of the U.S. populace and media to soccer (Szymanski & Zimbalist, 2006), Manchester United F.C. is one of sport’s most recognizable clubs, a global and highly valued brand, and subject to extensive academic attention by those researching the consequences of English football’s economic neoliberalization (Andrews, 2004; Millward & Poulton, 2014; Porter, 2015; Rofe, 2014; Szymanski, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Perfect Script? Manchester United’s Class of ’92

Dart

McDonald²

2016

Journal of Sport and Social Issues

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The Class of '92 is a documentary film which features six Manchester United F.C. players who recount their time during a pivotal period for the club, English football and English society. The documentary claims to offer a commentary of Britain in the 1990s, but appears, without acknowledging the fact, to be a promotional vehicle to establish the six men as a brand labelled the Class of '92. Creating this brand necessarily involved presenting a selective account of their time and place with the film being little more than an advertisement, masquerading as an observational documentary. The film draws freely upon the symbolic capital held by the club and the city of Manchester and uses the Busby Babes/Munich chapter and the more recent 'Madchester scene' to forge a Class of '92 brand by editing out those elements that did not accord with this project. The paper argues that a more complete representation of '90s Britain, whilst disrupting the intended narrative, would acknowledge the significant structural and commercial changes experienced by the club, the sport and the city in the last decade of the twentieth century. We suggest that the Class of '92 invites the viewer to consider how the documentary film genre can contribute to brand development and promotion. IntroductionIn this paper we focus on The Class of '92, a British documentary released in 2013, which features six Manchester United F.C. players during the mid-1990s. We discuss specific themes within, and missing from, the film and locate it in a broader sociocultural context and identify those factors which are inextricably linked to the club, English football and the city of Manchester. Notwithstanding the antipathy of much of the United States populace and media to soccer (Szymanski and Zimbalist, 2006), Manchester United F.C. is one of sport's most recognisable clubs, a global and highly valued brand and subject to extensive academic attention by those researching the consequences of English football's economic neoliberalisation (Andrews, 2004;Millward and Poulton, 2014;Porter, 2015;Rofe, 2014;Szymanski, 1998).The Class of '92 (hereafter CO92) documentary is built around key moments, a tactic common to the sport documentary genre. It begins in 1992 and closes in 1999 when Manchester United F.C. (hereafter MUFC) won 'the treble' comprising the FA Cup, the Premier League title and UEFA's European Champions League. The documentary purports to offer a sociocultural commentary on Britain in the 1990s orientated around six individuals: David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes. This paper examines the representation of these six players and film's links with the iconic 'Busby Babes'. We contend that the film exploits the Busby Babes/Munich tragedy and the more recent 'Madchester scene' in an attempt to forge a Class of '92 brand by editing out those elements in the history of the club and city that did not accord with CO92 project. We consider the aesthetic style found in specific segments, identify what was ...

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Football Fandom, Mobilization and Herbert Blumer: A Social Movement Analysis of F.C. United of Manchester

Cited by 25 publications

References 28 publications

Football activism as political contention: Contextual determinants of membership in the association of supporters of Hajduk Split

Football activism as political contention: Contextual determinants of membership in the association of supporters of Hajduk Split

A war between football fans and the government from the perspective of Herbert Blumer’s collective behaviour theory

A Perfect Script? Manchester United’s Class of ’92

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