Embodying the nation: football, emotions and the construction of collective identity

Abstract

1The article intends to combine contemporary debates about nations and nationalism with a sociological perspective on collective emotions in its attempt to gain a better understanding of the process of constructing national identity. It will further present interdisciplinary evidence that collective emotions evoked in rituals instigate a number of group-related sociocognitive processes that reinforce enduring feelings of belonging and an emotional priming of collective representations. I will suggest that states of “collective effervescence” (Durkheim) do not only tie individuals to a community, but also provide a strong frame for the creation of symbols and the embodiment of shared meanings defining a community. The second part of the article analyzes examples taken from the football media coverage of the FIFA World Cups 2006 and 1974 (both were held in Germany) in order to provide a comparative case study exemplifying the proposed theoretical approach. The sample illuminates some interesting changes that invite further hypotheses about corresponding changes of national identity in a larger context.

Keywords:

• nationalism
• emotion
• football media coverage
• collective emotions

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Christian von Scheve and Nina Peter for intense discussions of the paper, Erin Forster, Emmy Williamson, and Mirko Wittwar for polishing my English and Erika von Rautenfeld for comments on earlier drafts. I also would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers of Nationalities Papers for their stimulating feedback.

Notes

In this article the term “football” is used for the sport that US readers know as soccer.

The author is currently working on a grounded-theory-based analysis of the 2006 pre-match coverage.

Of course, a nation-state also has other means to achieve acceptance by its subjects (laws, institutions, etc.). Nevertheless an emotional attachment ensures loyalty the easy way.

Football has already been the subject of extensive research in social sciences; see, e.g., Tomlinson and Young; for an account of the transnational European football culture, King; for a contrasting analysis of discourse on national identities in the media of different countries, Crolley and Hand, “Identities”; for a detailed discussion of global football and national identitysee Schwier.

Pornschlegel uses the term “triangulation” to describe the basic principle of competing parties aiming for similar ends but doing so with regard to rules that are controlled by a neutral authority.

For a detailed discussion of the relationship between sports and the media, see, e.g., Boyle and Haynes; or for a collection of theoretical essays on the topic, see Wenner.

For the German print media, this has been done by Schediwy.

The sample contains the last 30 minutes of the pre-match report broadcast before the match started.

In the German Bundesliga, drinking beer and eating Würstchen are essential parts of the match experience.

It can be claimed that there are some similarities regarding the situation in Germany during the buildup to both tournaments (bad mood, economic stagnation); see Merkel for acomparative analysis of various issues.