Bigger than ourselves: the Southgate narrative and the search for a sense of common purpose

Abstract

The paper examines two ‘turns’ in English national sporting culture, ‘Beckhamisation’ and ‘Southgatism’, and their contribution to an ‘imagined community’ through processes of ‘banal nationalism’. It examines the critiques of various academic and media commentators to demonstrate the link between the trappings of sport (in this case football), and people’s understanding of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Music/songs, flags, language, multi-cultural representation, team ethos and espoused values, are not just signifiers, but have a pivotal part to play in representing, repressing and resisting particular forms of Englishness. The focus here is on those national sporting occasions that all too often have been associated with virulent forms of nationalism. We conclude that Southgatism holds out more hope for a progressive sporting patriotism than did its Beckhamite predecessor, but that this has yet to be tested in the febrile cauldron (the ‘hostile environment’ for immigrants and Brexit) currently forging English national identity.

Keywords:

• Banal Nationalism
• Englishness
• football
• progressive patriotism
• imagined community

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 England's Grand: https://www.itv.com/presscentre/ep1week46/englands-grand

2 The ‘Three Lions’ on the shirt derive from the royal coat of arms, a reference to Richard the Lionheart, and is the badge adopted by the Football Association.

3 A few years later David Cameron, then prime minister, was similarly humiliated when not knowing whether it was Aston Villa or West Ham that he supported.

4 Subsequently denied by Taylor in an interview with The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/graham-taylor-told-by-fa-not-to-pick-too-many-black-players-during-time-as-england-manager-10230269.html

5 Reported in The Guardian, 23 April 1993.

6 In this he seems to be following Anderson’s (1983, 137) more general argument regarding colonial nations.

7 Quoted in Evening Standard, 26 June 2018.

8 What could be more English than a waistcoat? But a waistcoat without a jacket?

9 The lyrics can be found at: https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/5355388/Billy+Bragg/England%2C+Half+English