Lecture and Seminar, Prof. Dr. Michal Buchowski

Course Description:

The lecture address broadly understood cultural images and practices related to football in Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, we will problematize football as:

1) a form of popular culture;
2) factor in identity making (‘nationalisation of the masses’ and segmentary organisation of football clubs’ supporters);
3) football hooliganism (violent form of fandom).

All these problems are seen in anthropological perspective.  It involves, among others, a view on culture as a dynamic pattern of rituals, myths and social drama  (V.T. Turner), presentation of the self (Goffman), symbolic communication and ‘tribal belonging’, and sport as religion. It also means a critical view on football subcultures as a product of class relations as well as facilitated by football identities which in extreme forms can lead to chauvinism and football clubs’ extreme partisanship.

Recommended reading:

• Nielsen, Christian Axboe: The goalposts of transition: football as a metaphor for Serbia's long journey to the rule of law, in; Nationalities Papers, Vol. 38, No. 1, January 2010, 87-103, Routledge 2009.
  
• Levermore, Roger / Millward, Peter: Official policies and informal transversal networks: Creating 'pan-European identifications' through sport?, in: The Sociological Review, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford 2007, pp. 144-164.