Football events, memories and globalization

ABSTRACT

Key events and episodes in football’s history are central to the making of personal and collective understandings of the global game at local, national and transnational levels. To explore these themes, this paper is organized into three main parts. First, I explore how diverse key events are spotlighted in the game’s social history, including episodes that are socially contested and/or with aspects of ‘disaster’. Second, I outline how events connect to the shaping of identities through forms of biographical and collective memory. Third, I consider how football events and memories connect to wider socio-cultural and political-economic processes, with regard to knowledge production, globalization, commodification, and postmodernisation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. As explained later, my approach to globalization relies particularly on Robertson, Globalisation.

2. Theoretically, this approach relies on the key scholars such as Weber (in Runciman, Weber), Schutz, The Phenomenology of the Social World; Mead, Mind, Self and Society; and Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures.

3. This critical perspective builds on my earlier arguments (Giulianotti, Sport); and, in part, on the types of critical theories advocated by Calhoun, Critical Social Theory and Habermas, Knowledge and Human Interests.

4. See for example Wilson, Inverting the Pyramid and Cox, The Mixer on historical innovations in football’s playing systems.

5. See for example Murray, Football on much of these developments in the game.

6. See for example Goldblatt, The Ball is Round on the game’s rich political and cultural history.

7. See, for example, Cleland, ‘Sexuality, Masculinity and Homophobia in Association Football’; Doidge, ‘“If You Jump Up and Down, Balotelli Dies”’; Pope, ‘“The Love of My Life”’; and Wagg, British Football and Social Exclusion on some of these diverse cultural political issues.

8. The Football Supporters Europe (FSE) movement is illustrative here.

9. The corruption scandals surrounding FIFA are illustrative; see Jennings, The Dirty Game.

10. See Darby et al. Soccer and Disaster on football disasters.

11. See Roberts, Football Voodoo for a general text on football, religion and superstition.

12. See for example Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity.

13. See Hornby, Fever Pitch.

14. See Sunstein, Republic.

15. See for example Bromberger, Le Match de Football or Armstrong, Football Hooligans.

16. See Guschwan, ‘Fans, Romans, Countrymen’; also Serazio, ‘The elementary forms of sports fandom’ on applying Durkheim to baseball fandom.

17. See Anderson, Imagined Communities and Lechner, ‘Imagined Communities in the Global Game’.

18. On these deep, long-standing issues, see, for example, Cleland, ‘Sexuality, Masculinity and Homophobia in Association Football’; Doidge, ‘“If You Jump Up and Down, Balotelli Dies”’; Pope, ‘“The Love of My Life”’; and Wagg, British Football and Social Exclusion.

19. See Siskind, Cosmopolitan Desires.

20. See Tarde, Les Lois de L’Imitation.

21. This follows Robertson, Globalisation.

22. See Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalisation and Football.

23. See, for example, McManus, ‘Modern Enchantments’; Hognestad, ‘Transglobal Scandinavian?.

24. On these and other commercial and mediatized aspects of football, see Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalisation and Football; Kennedy and Kennedy, Football Supporters and the Commercialization of Football.

25. See Ritzer, ‘Prosumption’; and Andrews and Ritzer, ‘Sport and Prosumption’.

26. See for example Redhead, Sing When You’re Winning; Post-Fandom and the Millennial Blues; Football and Accelerated Culture.

27. See Giulianotti (Football and Sport) for elaborations on these points in football and wider sport fields.

28. See for example Bauman, Intimations of Postmodernity; Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity and Jameson, Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.