Cardiff City Fans: a sociological explanation of their involvement in football cultures and football violence

This research aims to provide an accurate and more conceptually advanced view of football violence as practiced by Cardiff City fans both past and present, than the accepted views of football already available at an academic level. Expanding on work carried out at dissertation level, the research will attempt to provide a new model of football violence, and this will be constructed through the use of a variety of research methods to better understand football hooliganism as a socio-cultural phenomenon existing within the general field of football. Football as a field of activity will be discussed, as will the fact that whilst being a field of socio-cultural activity, professional football also has developed as a distinct market. The work aims to show why certain Cardiff City F.C. fans are not content to just watch their team participate, but who through a small leap of imagination cast themselves in the role of direct participant representing the team in the contest that is football hooliganism. Also to be discussed is why certain fans (usually at a formative age) would see those with a hooligan identity at Cardiff City F.C. as best representing their interests within the field, and who then go on to adopt a hooligan identity. The interests of Cardiff City fans within the field are explored, as are the specific set of social relations that have emerged. The emergence of the casuals as a socio-cultural category is examined as is media representations of them and in a reflexive manner the role of the police within the field is also examined. Finally the research aims to show how a group such as the Soul Crew, has by a combination of continued presence and growth within the field, gone on to become one of the dominant forces within the activity.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctoral Thesis

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Student thesis

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Whatley, Jason

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Brookman, Fiona
• Thompson, Andrew

• Cardiff City
• Soccer hooliganism
• Soccer fans
• Violence in sports

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

oai:pure.atira.dk:studenttheses/57a6ce33-f5f5-4baf-a1bf-cb69cee845db

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:pure.atira.dk:studenttheses/57a6ce33-f5f5-4baf-a1bf-cb69cee845db