International football tournaments, emotional entrainment and the reproduction of symbolic boundaries. A case study in Germany

Abstract

Understanding the social consequences of major soccer events is important for social science researchers and policy-makers alike. On the one hand, socially integrative effects are ascribed to these events. On the other hand, they are suspected of increasing the devaluation of minorities and disadvantaged groups. Sociological theories in a Durkheimian tradition suggest that the emotional entrainment that goes along with football-related rituals might play a role. We thus investigated the effects of the World Cup 2010 on the derogation of minorities and disadvantaged groups in Germany and hypothesized that the emotional entrainment is a predictor of changes in derogation. Results of our naturalistic study show significant increases in derogative attitudes after the World Cup. Contrary to our expectations, emotional entrainment is not associated with this increase. We discuss possible alternative explanations, in particular the influence of public discourse.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. FIFA, ‘Social Responsibility’.

2. Kersting, ‘Sport and National Identity’; Marivoet, ‘Sports Mega-Events’; and Prosser, ‘“Fußballverzückung” beim Stadionbesuch’.

3. Porro and Russo, ‘The Production of a Media Epic’. See for historical examples Tomlinson and Young, National Identity and Global Sports Events.

4. Orwell, ‘The Sporting Spirit’, 63.

5. See, for example, Dunning, ‘Towards a Sociological Understanding of Football Hooliganism as a World Phenomenon’; Dunning, Murphy and Williams, The Roots of Football Hooliganism; King, ‘Football Hooliganism and the Practical Paradigm’; Pilz, ‘Zuschauergewalt im Fußball’; Hahn et al., Fanverhalten, Massenmedien und Gewalt im Sport; and Armstrong and Giulianotti, Fear and Loathi in Word Football.

6. See, for example, Dembowski and Scheidle, Tatort Stadion. Rassismus, Antisemitismus und Sexismus im Fußball; Caudwell, ‘Does Your Boyfriend Know You’re Here?’; and Merkel and Tokarski, Racism and Xenophobia in European Football.

7. See, for example, Sullivan, ‘Qualitative Investigations of Mega-sport Events’; Halm, ‘Turkish Immigrants in German Amateur Football’; and Inthorn, ‘A Game of Nations’?

8. See, for example, Baker and Rowe, ‘Mediating Mega Events and Manufacturing Multiculturalism’; and Stehle and Weber, ‘German Soccer’.

9. See, for example, Becker, Wagner and Christ‚ ‘Nationalismus und Patriotismus als Ursache von Fremdenfeindlichkeit’.

10. Inthorn, ‘A Game of Nations?’, 155.

11. See, for example, Becker, Wagner and Christ, ‘Nationalismus und Patriotismus als Ursache von Fremdenfeindlichkeit’; and Schediwy, Sommermärchen im Blätterwald.

12. Stehle and Weber, ‘German Soccer’.

13. Alexander, ‘Citizen and Enemy as Symbolic Classification’.

14. Schlesinger, Media, State and Nation; and Phillips, ‘Symbolic Boundaries and National Identity in Australia’.

15. See, for example, King, The European Ritual; Pornschlegel, ‘Wie kommt die Nation an den Ball?’; Ismer, ‘Embodying the Nation’; and Leonard, A Sociological Perspective on Sport.

16. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

17. We prefer to use the term ‘entrainment’ because Durkheim’s term ‘effervescence’ originally refers to the emotional arousal experienced by participants of face-to-face rituals and gatherings.

18. Zick et al., ‘The Syndrome of Group-focused Enmity’, 364.

19. Pornschlegel, ‘Wie kommt die Nation an den Ball?’; Ismer, ‘Embodying the Nation’; King, The European Ritual; King, ‘Football Fandom and Post-national Identity in the New Europe’; Gebauer, Poetik des Fussballs; and Sterchele, ‘The Limits of Interreligious Dialogue and the Form of Football Rituals’.

20. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

21. Collins, Interaction Ritual Chains, 35.

22. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

23. Ibid., 217f.

24. Cohen, ‘Symbolic Construction of Community’, 20f.

25. Ibid., 50.

26. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, 303–405.

27. Ibid., 221.

28. Collins, Interaction Ritual Chains, 85.

29. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

30. Ibid., 222.

31. Collins, Interaction Ritual Chains, 104.

32. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. According to Durkheim, these categories are not only part of religious contexts. He uses the example of the French Revolution to demonstrate how ‘things that were by nature purely secular were transformed by public opinion into sacred things: Fatherland, Liberty, Reason’, Ibid., 215f.

33. Ibid., 321f.

34. Bergesen, ‘Die rituelle Ordnung’.

35. Ibid., 64.

36. Collins, Interaction ritual chains.

37. Ibid., 109.

38. Ibid.

39. Ibid.

40. See, for example, Von Scheve et al., ‘Emotional Entrainment, National Symbols, and Identification'.

41. See, for example, Lardellier, ‘Ritual Media’, for a study on the role of the media in staging rituals. He shows that the media manages to grant omnipresence to the major ritualized events of society. It becomes almost impossible for the individual to evade such events.

42. Collins, Interaction Ritual Chains.

43. Alexander, ‘Citizen and Enemy as Symbolic Classification’.

44. See, Cohen, ‘Symbolic Construction of Community’, 12.

45. Brannasch, ‘ARD-“Sportschau”’, 91. Brannasch refers to a study by ‘Sportfive’, a German sports rights agency.

46. See Geese, Zeughardt and Gerhard, ‘Die Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft im Fernsehen’.

47. Gerhard, Kessler and Gscheidle, ‘Die Fußballweltmeisterschaft 2010 im Fernsehen’.

48. Schediwy, Sommermärchen im Blätterwald; and Ismer, ‘Embodying the Nation’.

49. See also Stehle and Weber, ‘German Soccer’, 108.

50. Mutz, ‘Patrioten für drei Wochen’.

51. Blank and Schmidt, ‘National Identity in a United Germany’; Blank and Schmidt, ‘Konstruktiver Patriotismus im vereinigten Deutschland?’; and Heyder and Schmidt, ‘Deutscher Stolz’. Some of these studies build on a dichotomous understanding of ‘patriotic’ national pride rooted in democratic achievements of one’s nation, on the one hand, and ‘nationalistic’ national pride which is directed on the nation as such, on the other. Only the latter is presumably connected to out-group derogation. For a critical discussion of this issue, see Cohrs et al., Ist patriotischer Nationalstolz wünschenswert?

52. Becker, Wagner and Oliver, ‘Nationalismus und Patriotismus als Ursache von Fremdenfeindlichkeit’.

53. Kersting, ‘Sport and National Identity’.

54. FIFA, ‘Almost Half the World Tuned in at Home to Watch 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™’.

55. Media Control, Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft 2010.

56. Lardellier, ‘Ritual Media’.

57. Shadish, Cook and Campbell, Experimental and Quasi-experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference.

58. Thompson et al., ‘From Paper to Pixels’; and Wright, ‘Researching Internet-based Populations’.

59. Evans and Mathur, ‘The Value of Online Surveys’.

60. While we recognize that citizenship is neither a guarantee nor a requirement for identification with a country, the debate surrounding identification and citizenship is beyond our scope of discussion. Soysal offers a closer examination of post-national citizenship, but for our purposes, we will assume that citizenship implies identification with the nation.

61. Zick et al., ‘The Syndrome of Group-focused Enmity’.

62. For an overview, see Heitmeyer, Deutsche Zustände.

63. See Von Scheve et al., for details. ‘Emotional Entrainment, National Symbols, and Identification'.

64. See, for example, Wu and Zumbo, ‘Understanding and Using Mediators and Moderators’.

65. ‘Re-settlers’ is the term for individuals from Eastern Europe and former parts of the Soviet Union who are granted the right to apply for German citizenship and German residency by German law because they can prove what is called German ‘Volkszugehörigkeit’ (ethnicity). Re-settlers have to be of German descent, prove basic language skills, be defined as German by the government of their country of origin former place of residence or be self-defined as German by way of life.

66. Mastro, ‘Effects of Racial and Ethnic Stereotyping’.

67. Levine and Harrison, ‘Effects of Media on Eating Disorders and Body Image’; and Stice et al., ‘Relation of Media Exposure to Eating Disorder Symptomatology’.

68. Ward, Hansbrough and Walker, ‘Contributions of Music Video Exposure to Black Adolescents’ Gender and Sexual Schemas’.

69. Crolley, Hand and Jeutter, ‘National Obsessions and Identities in Football Match Reports’, 185; and see also Crolley and Hand, Football, Europe and the Press.

70. O’Donnel, ‘Mapping the Mythical’; Rowe, ‘Sport and the Repudiation of the Global’; Habenstreit, ‘Keep Your Hands off the Vuvuzela!’; and Lippe, ‘An Orgy of a Masculine Scandal in Media’.

71. We are aware of the fact that discourses on bodies and sexuality are not limited to the realm of sports but present in numerous daily situations. Nevertheless, we argue that they gain visibility and salience during events like the World Cup. Furthermore, during the 2010 World Cup, multiple media reports characterized the German team’s style of play as less aggressive, ‘feminine’ football. Michael Becker, an agent of one of the former teammates, even referred to the German national team as a ‘bunch of gays’.

72. See Ismer, ‘Embodying the Nation’.

73. For an overview see Anderson, ‘Being Masculine is not about Who You Sleep with …’ However, football has also been shown to ‘encourage sexual ambiguity’, see Coad, The Metrosexual, 10, as is evident in the growing body of literature on ‘metrosexuality’ in sports, often linked to the British football player, David Beckham (Ibid.).

74. Sülzle, ‘Fußball als Schutzraum für Männlichkeit?’.

75. See, for example, Caudwell, ‘Does your Boyfriend Know You’re Here?’; and Jones and McCarthy, ‘Mapping the Landscape of Gay Men’s Football’. A recent study by Cashmore and Cleland, fans, homophobia and masculinities in association football, however, suggests that the days of football as a stronghold of homophobia might have come to an end. They observed decreases in homophobia and increases in ‘inclusive masculinity’ amongst British fans.

76. See, Cohen, ‘Symbolic Construction of Community’, 115.