engleski

Youth, Football and Social Activism: The Ethnographic Research of „White Stones“

In last two decades new wave of rigid commercialisation and commodification of football provoked various reactions from the side of traditional and passionate football supporters. Against Modern Football is a common denominator of a worldwide, heterogeneous social movement that comprises various actors and methods of fight. In contemporary networked society, this movement exist globally but it is primarily embodied in local community and bonded with youth subculture. Among many types of action (from simple slogans on banners or city walls, to boycotts, petitions, protests and riots), the practice of founding new football clubs by the fans themselves has special significance within the movement. Our focus is on Varteks Varaždin FC, Croatian example of this process, which already produced well known cases (clubs) like FC United of Manchester, FC Falke Hamburg and many others. The goal of this paper is to present key findings from our ethnographic study of the ultras group White Stones and FC Varteks Varaždin, as a part of big international (H2020) scientific project PROMISE (PROMoting youth Involvement and Social Engagement). Between October 2016 and January 2018, we carried out ethnographic research on the White Stones ultras group from Varaždin, which resulted in 53 field diary entries (including 21 home and away matches) and 25 interviews with core members of the White Stones. We shall analyse key dimensions of social activism and political opinions of respondents, gathered through semi-structured interviews and also their behaviour in observed situations, at football matches as well as in their everyday life.

Youth, Football, Social Activism, Ultras Subculture, Croatia

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