Sources of identity and community among highly identified football fans in Germany. An empirical categorisation of differentiation processes¹

¹An analysis of highly identified football fans in Germany based on qualitative interviews carried out as part of the Bielefeld Football Fan Study.

Abstract

‘Differentiation’ is identified as a key category, and an empirical system of differentiation is developed. The key category is divided into two subcategories, which are further dimensionalized. The analysis finds that highly identified fans differentiate themselves from other fans (both from their own club and from rival clubs) and strive for positive distinction. Violent acts as extreme forms of differentiation are identity-establishing for some of these fans. Confrontations with rival fans are actively sought to extend team competitions concerning the best support into a physical and violent plane and to enforce territorial claims.

Acknowledgment

We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which helped us to improve the manuscript.

Notes

¹ An analysis of highly identified football fans in Germany based on qualitative interviews carried out as part of the Bielefeld Football Fan Study.

1. Cf. Kathöfer and Kotthaus, Block X – Unter Ultras.

2. Cf. Claessens, Gruppe und Gruppenverbände, 18ff; Giulianotti, ‘Supporters, Followers, Fans, and Flaneurs’, 33f.

3. Cf. Hitzler and Niederbacher, Leben in Szenen, 20f.

4. See Stone, ‘The Role of Football in Everyday Life’, 181.

5. See Merkel, ‘Football fans and clubs in Germany’.

6. See Henri Tajfel and John Turner, ‘The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior’.

7. Cf. e.g. Stott et al., ‘Tackling Football Hooliganism’; Testa and Gary, Football, Fascism and Fandom; Giulianotti, Bonney and Hepworth, Football, Violence, and Social Identity.

8. Cf. Armstrong and Giulianotti, Fear and Loathing in World Football.

9. Cf. Giulianotti, ‘Supporters, Followers, Fans, and Flaneurs’.

10. Cf. Grau et al., ‘Football Fans in Germany’.

11. Cf. Kathöfer and Kotthaus, Block X – Unter Ultras.

12. Cf. Pilz et al., Wandlungen des Zuschauerverhaltens im Profifußball.

13. Cf. Eckert, Die Dynamik jugendlicher Gruppen, 34ff.

14. See Sayers, ‘Identity and Community’.

15. Cf. Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique.

16. Cf. Tajfel and Turner, ‘The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior’.

17. cf. Claessens, Gruppe und Gruppenverbände, 5.

18. Cf. Elias, The Society of Individuals.

19. Cf. Strauss, Qualitative analysis for social scientists, 38.

20. Cf. Ibid., 27.

21. Cf. Giulianotti, ‘Supporters, Followers, Fans, and Flaneurs’, 34.

22. Cf. Kathöfer and Kotthaus, Block X – Unter Ultras, 123.

23. See Saleebey, ‘Culture, Theory, and Narrative’.

24. Cf. Eckert, Reis and Wetzstein, ‘Ich will halt anders sein wie die anderen!’ 400.

25. Cf. Kathöfer and Kotthaus, Block X – Unter Ultras, 115.

26. Dart, ‘Confessional Tales from Former Football Hooligans’, 44.

27. See Spaaij, ‘Aspects of Hooligan Violence’; Thornton, Casuals: Football, Fighting and Fashion.

28. Cf. Jenß, ‘Dressed in History’, 388, see Richardson and Turley, ‘Support Your Local Team’.

29. Cf. Hitzler and Niederbacher, Leben in Szenen.

30. Cf. Tarrant, ‘Adolescent Peer Groups and Social Identity’, 110f.

31. Cf. Spaaij, ‘Aspects of Hooligan Violence’, 25f.

32. Cf. Eckert, Reis and Wetzstein, ‘Ich will halt anders sein wie die anderen!’ 418.

33. Cf. Sánchez-Jankowski, Islands in the Street, 148; Spaaij, ‘Aspects of Hooligan Violence’, 27; Ronald Hitzler and Michaela Pfadenhauer, ‘Existential Strategies: The Making of Community’, 97f.

34. See note 25 above.

35. See note 10 above.

36. See note 1 above.

37. Cf. Brown, Eicher and Petrie, ‘The Importance of Peer Group’, 95.

38. Cf. Eckert, Die Dynamik jugendlicher Gruppen, 41.

39. See Winands, Interaktionen von Fußballfans.

40. Thornton, Club Cultures, 5.

41. Cf. Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method.

42. Cf. Moffitt and Caspi, ‘Childhood Predictors Differentiate Life-course Persistent and Adolescence-limited Antisocial Pathways Among Males and Females’, 356.

43. Cf. Halbwachs, On Collective Memory.

44. Cf. King, ‘Violent Pasts’.

45. Cf. Ibid., 583f.

46. Ibid., 582.

47. Cf. Winands, Interaktionen von Fußballfans; Clark, ‘I’m Scunthorpe “Til I Die”’; Armstrong and Young, ‘Fanatic Football Chants: Creating and Controlling the Carnival’; Goffman, Frame analysis. An essay on the organization of experience.

48. Cf. Brake, Comparative Youth Culture, 15.

49. Cf. Schwier, ‘Soccer Fans and Subcultural Media’.

50. Cf. Spaaij, ‘Aspects of Hooligan Violence’, 24; see Armstrong and Giulianotti, ‘Avenues of Contestation’.

51. Brantigham et al., ‘The Ecology of Gang Territorial Boundaries’, 878.

52. Cf. Benkwitz, Clashing Sub-cultures.

53. Ibid., 168.

54. Cf. Armstrong and Giulianotti, Fear and Loathing in World Football.

55. Cf. Giulianotti, ‘Supporters, Followers, Fans, and Flaneurs’.

56. Cf. Kathöfer and Kotthaus, Block X – Unter Ultras.

57. Cf. Siegel and Welsh, Juvenile delinquency, 57f.