engleski

The citizens’ social distance towards ultras subculture in Croatia:What do ultras think their fellow citizens?

The interaction of the identity and activities of members of the ultras subculture with their surroundings strongly influences their social status. Ultras in Croatia are constantly met with labels and prejudices. Until the 2010s, sociological research mostly approached them as deviants. However, their struggle against corruption and commodification in football in recent years means they are now also approached as social activists. Social distance is a measure of how close or far an individual or group is from a given social or ethnic group. This research uses data collected in Croatia as part of the H2020 PROMISE project to verify two research goals: 1) affirming citizens’ social distance towards the ultras subculture, and ; 2) affirming ultras’ self-assessment of how they are labelled. A survey carried out in 2018 on a representative sample of youths aged 15 to 29 (N=600) and citizens over 30 (N=600) to measure social distance used the question: “Who would you like to have as neighbours: people with large families, drug addicts, young people in their 20’s, devout Christians, teenagers, Muslims, LGBT people, ultras”. As a part of ethnographic research on the ultras group White Stones Varaždin, in-depth interviews were carried out in 2017 (N=25). The results of data analysis indicate an ambivalent relationship between the general population’s notable social distance towards the ultras subculture and ultras’ feelings of labelling and stigmatisation in everyday life.

ultras ; subculture ; social distance ; labelling ; Croatia

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