Abstract
This essay examines the British media’s reporting of German football club FC St Pauli’s promotion to the Bundesliga. Analysis of the articles reveals a utopian view of what FC St Pauli represents within the culture of football, and this is explained through identified themes of ‘nostalgic idealism’ and ‘resistant identity’. The article also draws attention to the underplaying of evidence of investment and development in a bid to highlight the footballing antithesis that FC St Pauli is described as offering. Finally, it makes recommendations for fieldwork to be carried out, to examine in greater detail not only the reported alternative culture, but also how this identity can be negotiated in the future, in an increasingly globalized and commercialized world.
Notes
1. BBC, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.
2. Soccernet, ‘Milito’s Magic’.
3. Deloitte, ‘Deloitte’s Sport Unit Identifies…’.
4. Fylan, ‘St Pauli Red Light Buccaneers…’
5. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World…’.
6. Minshull, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.
7. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World…’.
8. Minshull, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.
9. Fylan, ‘St Pauli Red Light Buccaneers…’.
10. Strauss and Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research.
11. Fairley and Gammon, ‘Something Lived, Something Learned’.
12. Healey, ‘An Exploration of the Relationships…’.
13. Healey, ‘An Exploration of the Relationships…’.
14. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World…’.
15. Fylan, ‘St Pauli Red Light Buccaneers…’.
16. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World...’.
17. Minshull, ‘St Pauli ready to Hoist…’.
18. Walvin, The People’s Game.
19. Fairley and Gammon, ‘Something Lived, Something Learned’.
20. Holbrook, ‘Nostalgia and Consumption Preferences’.
21. Snyder, ‘Sociology of Nostalgia’; Holbrook and Schindler, ‘Echoes of the Dear Departed Past’.
22. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World…’.
23. Fylan, ‘St Pauli Red Light Buccaneers…’.
24. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World…’.
25. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms; Halbwachs, The Collective Memory.
26. Healey, ‘An Exploration of the Relationships…’.
27. Bellelli and Amatulli, ‘Nostalgia, Immigration and Collective Memory’; Dann, ‘Tourism’; Davis, Yearning for Yesterday; Snyder, ‘Sociology of Nostalgia’.
28. Barcley and DeCooke, ‘Ordinary Everyday Memory’.
29. Minshull, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.
30. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World…’.
31. Fylan, ‘St Pauli Red Light Buccaneers…’.
32. Giullianotti, Bonney, and Hepworth, Football, Violence and Social Identity.
33. Halbwachs, The Collective Memory; Davis, Yearning for Yesterday.
34. Belk, ‘The Role of Possessions’, 674.
35. Sandvoss, A Game of Two Halves.
36. Groves, ‘Resisting the Globalization…’.
37. Fylan, ‘St Pauli Red Light Buccaneers…’.
38. Minshull, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.
39. Minshull, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.
40. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World…’.
41. Thornton, ‘Introduction’.
42. Hall and Jefferson, Resistance through rituals; Clarke, Hall, Jefferson, and Roberts, ‘Subcultures, Culture and Class’.
43. Rowe, ‘Sport and the Repudiation…’.
44. Fylan, ‘St Pauli Red Light Buccaneers…’.
45. Fylan, ‘St Pauli Red Light Buccaneers…’.
46. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World…’.
47. Brown, ‘“Our Club, Our Rules”’.
48. MacClancey, ‘Nationalism at Play’; Castillo, ‘Play Fresh, Play Local’.
49. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World…’.
50. Fylan, ‘St Pauli Red Light Buccaneers…’.
51. Minshull, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.
52. Parker, ‘Masculinities and English Professional Football’; Lusted, ‘Playing Games with “Race”’.
53. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World…’.
54. Minshull, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.
55. Minshull, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.
56. Thornton, ‘Introduction’.
57. Cunningham and Lab, Dress and Popular Culture.
58. Cunningham and Lab, Dress and Popular Culture.
59. Fylan, ‘St Pauli Red Light Buccaneers…’.
60. Minshull, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.
61. Minshull, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.
62. Fylan, ‘St Pauli Red Light Buccaneers…’.
63. Fylan, ‘St Pauli Red Light Buccaneers…’.
64. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World…’.
65. Szczepanik, ‘St Pauli in a World…’.
66. Minshull, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.
67. Minshull, ‘St Pauli Ready to Hoist…’.