This book is the first comprehensive attempt to identify the deeper causes that have shaped contemporary behaviour patterns and motivations among football fans in Poland. Fan culture in Poland has long been based on a distinctively grassroots, spontaneous movements that ruled out any cooperation with local authorities and sports organizations. The activity of supporter groups has regularly failed to meet the principles set by official bodies, intentionally breaching the moral and legal standards of the day. Based on data derived from ethnographic fieldwork, content analysis of fan journals, magazines, social media and online forums, as well as a wide range of qualitative interviews conducted over the years, the book analyses the ways in which fandom culture in Poland has evolved: from its moderate beginnings in the shadows of a communist regime in the 1970’s, through the anomic, ‘uncivilized’ and pathological decade of the 1990’s, to the peculiar culture based on strong cohesion, capabilities of social mobilization and emerging 'resistance identity' in the 21st century. It thus provides a detailed analysis of Polish fandom’s multi-dimensional structure, and will be of interest to students and academics interested in the growing field of football research, as well as those researching the transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, or more generally in European Studies.

This book explores the meanings, significances, and impacts of the complex identities that soccer fans, especially those of men's soccer, represent worldwide. The chapters in this volume construct and reconstruct fandom in terms of diverse fan affiliations from local to global level, and from national to transnational spaces. Soccer or (association) football is a game where fans come alive with one goal. It is soccer’s fanbase that has made it the most popular mass spectator sport in the world. Since the sport’s growth and its codification in the late nineteenth century, soccer and its followers became markers of varied identities. This volume is an attempt to understand the soccer fan’s tryst with such identities, mostly at the level of professional men’s football in different parts of the world. Fans create, represent, break, recreate, transcend, complicate and confuse diverse identities in their attachments with and loyalties to particular clubs, nations, continents, spaces, communities, races, ethnicities, and players. These identities are given shape through the display and observance of diverse forms of fandom and fan subcultures. Against this wider backdrop, the book brings out the commonalities, conflicts and tensions within these fan identities. Why Fans Matter? Fans and Identities in the Soccer World will be a fascinating read for anybody with an interest in sport and its intersection with disciplines such as sociology, political science, history, media studies, or cultural studies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Soccer & Society.

Activism in Hard Times in Central and Eastern Europe elevates the voices of civic activists from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and analyzes a wealth of information to generate new insights into how activism in the region manages to be vibrant, diverse, and consequential. Because of these countries’ unique historical trajectory, CEE activists have, in important ways, leap-frogged their counterparts in the West. Giving special attention to activists in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine, the book focuses on responses to the recent “hard times” – the shrinking of public space for civil society, democratic backsliding, polarization, and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The contributors contend that CEE activists provide important lessons for others confronting similar challenges around the world. The book is well-suited for a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, such as comparative politics, human rights, global governance, social movements, Central and East European politics, and contemporary world politics. This timely and readable book, co-created by academics and activists and written in a conversational tone, will also be of interest to the interested public and practitioners. The book encourages readers to think differently about the role of civil society and activism, as well as about how new tools and polarizing dynamics affect activism in this region.

This book examines the ways that nationalist leaders and extremist groups have used football to advance their often-violent ideological narratives and to recruit and radicalise young people. Drawing on applied ethnographic research with the Ultra fan groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the book explores the behavioural dynamics of the BiH Ultras both on, and outside of, the football terraces. The book shines important new light on the Ultras' ideology, organisation and youth recruiting strategies, and their connections with other extremist groups. In a country and region divided on ethnic and religious lines, in which far-right and ethno-nationalist groups are a visible presence in politics and society, this book helps us to better understand why, when, and how BiH youth choose to join these groups, and why, when, and how these groups participate in violent acts, hate speech, crime, and racist actions. The book has important implications for efforts to counter violent extremism across the Western Balkans and beyond. This is valuable reading for any researcher, advanced student, policy maker, or practitioner working in sport studies, political science, criminology, development studies, security studies, or post-conflict studies.

This book offers a novel and interdisciplinary exploration of revolution as situated protest in Tunisia. Larbi Sadiki and Layla Saleh present extensive local evidence to demonstrate that popular resistance has been a mainstay of modern Tunisia before, during, and after colonialism. Protest makes peoplehood, and peoplehood makes protest: neither is self-contained. The book explores the rich history and diversity of insurrectionary politics in Tunisia from the onset of protests in the 1960s up to the 2011 Arab Spring revolution and beyond, exploring bottom-up activism (hirak) and revolution (thawrah). The six protestscapes presented in the volume (unions, student activists, the phosphate uprising, the 2010-11 revolution, Kamour, and football ultras) offer a novel way of examining partial 'moving snapshots' that are crucial to understanding revolution. They counter the prevailing narrative of revolution as leaderless, a spontaneous surprise with no historical pedigree or inherited learning, and depict instead an active citizenry whose collective memories are stamped by trials of anti-colonial and anti-dictatorial rebellion.

Sport and Nationalism: Theoretical Perspectives aims to advance the academic study of the interconnections between sport and nationalism by, firstly, reviewing the current ‘state of play’ in this field of study and, secondly, highlighting the potential for the development of future theoretically-informed analysis of the relationship between sport, nationalism and national identity. This book offers a critical appraisal of the utility of various theoretical concepts used to explore the nature of contemporary nationalism when applied to the specific topic of sport. Bringing together a range of contemporary academics in this field of study, it offers an opportunity to showcase contrasting theoretical positions on this topic. Furthermore, the central focus of the book regarding extended application of theories of nationalism to the field of sport provides an opportunity for novel and critical contributions to this field of study. This book will be beneficial to students, researchers and professionals with an interest in sport and in the relationship between sport, politics and nationalism. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

This is the first book to focus on the interrelated issues of social control and disorder in football. It shows how the ‘beautiful game’ illuminates our understanding of the mechanisms and techniques of social control and regulation in contemporary societies. It explores past, new, and continued responses from law enforcers, football associations, sport’s governing bodies, the media, and international organizations to issues of disorder and misbehaviour in football, and how this is highly contested by fans and fan groups. Featuring the work of an international team of leading researchers in football and sport-related studies, the book examines key contemporary trends and topics including fan activism, football-specific legislation, power, violence, fan rivalries, subcultures, the policing of crowds, social sorting, and surveillance. Featuring diverse international cases, including the Qatar World Cup, stadium protests in Portland, Oregon, spectator violence in Polish football, social media and Brazilian football, and sectarianism in Scottish football, the book also looks ahead to what the future holds for the world’s most popular sport. This is an invaluable resource for students, researchers, or the general reader with an interest in the sociology of sport, criminology, sport management, and sports law.