Zugl.: Diplomarbeit.

The Swedish football supporter culture is seemingly embossed with violence, crime and hate. The purpose of this study is to examine how football violence is comprehended and experienced by matchgoing supporters. The study consists of material gathered from participating observations at four football games and a documentary called “Jag är Huligan” (I’m a Hooligan), and interviews with matchgoing supporters with first hand experience of violence and includes police, security guard and active supporters. The study finds that Media is perceived as problematic with biased reports and insufficient details. Group identity is found to be mostly positive, assists in creating acceptance for rule-violations. The violence is perceived as non problematic for civilians and easily avoided. Inclusion into the violent spheres is targeted at young men and provides affirmation, police action seem to have a direct impact on recruitment. Finally it is concluded that improved dialogue and cooperation is key to improving and or changing supporter culture.

The aim of the research is to evaluate crowd violence as it pertains to sports and its spectators. In particular, the research examines sports riots. "A sports riot is defined as violence-vandalism, throwing/shooting missiles, rushing the field or court, committing arson, and/or fighting- committed by five or more individuals in a crowd of one hundred people associated with a formally organized sporting event" (Lewis, 2007). On a micro level, the most prevalent form of spectator violence is the act of Hooliganism in relation to football (soccer). The research on this aggression has been primarily inherent in Europe and South and Central America in concert with soccer matches. One of the goals of the research is to see if this unique type violence has the potential to occur in North America when comparing it to Europe and more specifically the United Kingdom. Currently, the average Major League Soccer (MLS) teams are capturing slightly higher attendance numbers than the NBA and the NHL. In the 2010-11 season, the average MLS attendance was 17,869, compared to 17,319 and 17,126 respectively (ESPN.com, 2011). With the expansion and globalization of the sport when traveling groups from Europe and South/Central America play United States teams (municipalities or the National team) in a "friendly" (exhibition match) or a World Cup qualifiers stateside, it is understood that supporter firms (hooligan gangs) will travel to support their team. Are hooligans simply looking for a violent result under the guise of being football supporters? "It's a lot more widespread than the general public realize. They might hear of one or two big incidences a year. But this thing happens week in week out at different grounds around England" (Hooligans: No one likes us, 2002). Collective behavior is the most apparent theoretic way to view these outbursts. This research however will examine this social phenomenon through symbolic interaction perspective as well.; The hooligan culture is embedded with symbols of social disorder and rebellion. Racism, xenophobia homophobia and even patriotism are the tent poles of this social phenomenon. Additionally, from firm (gang) to firm (gang), socially constructed deviance such as rival history, improper police conduct, the media and alcohol are overarching factors. The final facet of the research examines how to curb the violence. Since Hooliganism is surprisingly tactical in and of itself, how authorities can potentially identify trouble makers and anticipate violence will be assessed. Since the English have customarily been deemed by the international community as some of the worst cohort participants, the tactics that authorities abroad have utilized (successful and otherwise) will be evaluated. Recommendations to prevent and combat this problem will be made in the hopes that a proactive approach can be developed domestically.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka huliganism som ett socialt fenomen, där det ingått att undersöka vilken mening det kollektiva våldet inom huliganismen fyller för individerna, på vilket sätt huligankulturen är organiserad, samt vad som karaktäriserar den typiske huliganen. Studiens empiri bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer med två aktiva huliganer och två före detta huliganer. Förutom intervjuer har även inspiration från Swedbergs (2016) definition av teoretisering använts som metod i denna studie. Studiens teoretiska referensram utgörs framförallt av Ahrne och Brunssons (2011) teori om partiell organisering och Littman och Palucks (2015) teoretiska förståelse för varför individer väljer att bruka våld på uppdrag av en grupp. Som ett teoretiskt verktyg i analysen har även Simmels (se Korllos, 1994) teori om sociala typer använts. Resultatet visade att våldet fyller en känsla av gemenskap, men kan även användas som ett sätt bevisa sig inför andra huliganer. Inom huliganismen kunde de organisatoriska elementen medlemskap, hierarki, regler och sanktioner hittas. I resultatet framkom även att den typiske huliganen är lojal mot andra huliganer, han kan socialisera sig med andra medlemmar av gruppen, han har en vilja att slåss, och våldet medför att han ljuger för personer utanför huligankulturen.

Denna uppsats är en socialpsykologisk och kvalitativ undersökning som syftar till att förstå hur man kan, utifrån ett socialpsykologiskt perspektiv förstå varför vissa individer ansluter sig till en huliganfirma och varför de stannar kvar. Fotbollshuliganism blev som störst i Sverige på 1990-talet och det pågår ett arbete i samhället för att försöka minska detta samhällsproblem då huliganismen innebär våld och vandalisering. Uppsatsen grundar sig på tio intervjuer med personer som har varit eller är aktiva i olika huliganfirmor i Sverige. Den vetenskapsteoretiska ansats som använts är hermeneutiken. Det insamlade empiriska materialet är analyserat med hjälp av följande socialpsykologiska teorier och begrepp: sociala band, skam och stolthet (Scheff 1994), interaktionsritualer och emotionell energi (Collins 2004), avvikande beteende (Becker 2005), maskulinitetsteori (Connell 2008), beroende och kickar (Giddens 1992), ungdomsfaser (Erikson 1988). Med utgångspunkt i dessa teorier har vi försökt att lyfta fram en socialpsykologisk förståelse för hur man kan förstå de drivkrafter som är orsaken till att man ansluter sig till en firma och vad som håller en kvar. Resultatet pekar på att en firma kan för individen ersätta en icke tillfredsställd livssituation. Resultatet visar också att gruppen är så viktig för individen att det kan skapa ett destruktivt beroende samt hur mycket den kan påverka individen att handla på ett sätt som denne aldrig hade gjort ensam. / This is a social psychology and qualitative research studying what kind of people who become football hooligans and what makes them stay. Football hooliganism became a phenomenon in Sweden society in the 1990s and the community tried to reduce this because hooliganism involves violence and vandalism. The essay is based on ten interviews with people who have been or are active in a hooligan firm in Sweden. The epistemological approach is used as hermeneutics. The collected empirical material is analyzed using the following social psychological theories and concepts: social bonds, shame and pride (Scheff 1994), interaction rituals and emotional energy (Collins, 2004), abnormal behavior (Becker 2005), masculinity theory (Connell 2008), dependency and kicks (Giddens 1992), juvenile stages (Erikson 1988). Based on these theories, we have tried to highlight a social psychological approach of how to understand the reasons of why you join a company and what makes you stay. We concluded that a firm can replace a non satisfied life situation. We also concluded that the group is that important to the individual that it can create a destructive addiction and how much it can influence individuals to act in ways that he had never done alone.

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Diss. Univ. Zürich, 2008. / Literaturverz.

Thesis "Social work with football fans in the European Union countries as an inspiration for the Czech Republic" is about specific kind of social work with football fans and so called fan projects. Work consists of introduction of specifics of football fans, resp. hooligans when describes history of this area and also the most recent situation. This is followed by theoretical and fundamental part of the work that describes working projects or projects that can be taken as an example. This part includes international projects of fan's embassies and explains the concept of fan project of fan management. This is covering also social prevention and contact work suitable for fan project. Description of the target group of fan projects, their financing and summary of recommended competence of fan worker. The end of theoretical part describes in details a fan project which comes from contact work and youths clubs. It includes description of activities that are offered, services and how it is served. This is the most important part of the whole work as it brings exact description for realization that can be used for a future projects. The practical part completes theoretical part and investigates level of information of football club in this social work area, their opinion on role and responsibilities of...

Thesis "Social work with football fans in the European Union countries as an inspiration for the Czech Republic" is about specific kind of social work with football fans and so called fanprojects. Work is focusing on description of topics and projects realized at international Europe level, following by description of situation in England, Italy and Germany. Projects mentioned in work are either already working or are mentioned as inspiration for CZ. Work explaining approach in each country including description of organization activities. Projects that are covering this topic in Czech Republic, are also listed in work. Also international project of fans embassy as an example of social service with football fans are included in work. Fan project including example of best practices is part of the work. Practical part of work - qualitative research is supplementing theoretical part and it is coming in several parts. Part of research is describing attitude of football clubs for this king of social work, part is describing interviews with employees of organization working with football fans in Europe. Another part is analyzing documents of specific Fanclub and analyze of email communication with members of fans associations. Practical part is complementing theoretical part. At the end there is...

Diss. Univ. Lausanne, 2008. / Bibliogr. Index.