Let's Kick Racism Out of Football- and the Lefties Too

Responses to Lee Bowyer on a West Ham Web Site

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2348944
AutoresAndy Ruddock (0000-0001-6927-3048, John Moores University in Liverpool, United Kingdom, autor de correspondencia)
Año2005
Volumen29
Número4
Páginas369-385
Fecha de publicación2005-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Sport and Social Issues (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0193-7235 • E-ISSN: 1552-7638
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0193723505280665
OpenAlexW2152703040
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas21
Referencias citadas21

This article examines how the empirical study of football fans can inform contemporary debates in critical audience research, particularly around issues of pleasure and cultural citizenship. In January 2003, West Ham United signs Lee Bowyer; a controversial move, given the accusations of racism surrounding the player. Although football is often championed as a potent arena for debate and negotiation in cultural politics, Web-based responses to Bowyer among West Hamfans demonstrate how these issues can be subordinated within essentially conservative discourses of belonging. This is due, in part, to structural similarities between fandom and populism, stressing negative modes of identification and desire to return to a mythic past. Consequently, pleasure and politics coexist but do not meet in a West Ham supporting vernacular that has little to say about racism

Aesthetics · Art · Citizenship · Fandom · Football · Literature · Media studies · Pleasure · Political science · Politics · Populism · Racism · Sociology · Vernacular · Gender Studies · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Psychology · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society