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Theorizing surveillance and social spacing through football

The fan‐opticon and beyond

Bibliographic Data

ID12912435
AuthorsMark Turner (0000-0002-8029-1703, Southampton Solent University), Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen (0000-0002-0085-2321, Liverpool John Moores University, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume17
Issue2
Publication date2022-12-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1751-9020 • E-ISSN: 1751-9020
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/soc4.13055
OpenAlexW4311297618
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited40

This article critically examines the temporal mobilizations of a 25‐year football supporter social movement against the all‐seating (stadia) legislation in England and Wales, to unpack, and advance, (neo‐)Foucauldian panoptic theorizations of surveillance power and counter‐power. Drawing upon prior empirically informed analysis of this movement; ‘Safe Standing’, the article interrogates new policy‐based outcomes, including the early adoption of ‘licensed (Safe) Standing’ technology in 2022, to argue, that whilst publicly framed as a movement victory, it simultaneously serves to prefigure a new regulatory regime in football; one which extends the regulation and surveillance of fans within the wider social and corporate lifeworld . Introducing our new concept; the ‘fan‐opticon’, the article discusses how Safe Standing continues to normalize a momentum of surveillance in sport and highlights the contradictory nature of security‐related projects in the twenty‐first century. We conclude that the governmentality of the state through football, to be characteristic of temporally sensitive hermeneutic struggles of power and resistance, through the discipline, and self‐discipline of social actors. New forms of subjectivity are remoulded in ways which extend the power of surveillance and regulation, despite multiple counter‐conduct, and discursive, resistance practices

Biopower · Epistemology · Football · Governmentality · Panopticon · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Resistance (ecology · Social movement · Sociology · Subjectivity · Victory · Doping in Sports · Law · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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    Open Access•Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen•Soccer and Society•2024

  • Coordinating security, managing crowds, and marketing social control

    Open Access•Joel Rookwood, Thomas P Oates•Soccer and Society•2026

  • Graphic heritage calling

    Open Access•Robert G Harland, Shaima Elbardawil•Soccer and Society•2024

  • Only a game? The politics of football, the English Premier League, and its wider international relations

    Open Access•David M Webber•The British Journal of Politics…•2024

  • Safety and Security Battles

    Open Access•Mark Turner, Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen•Sociological Research Online•2024

  • Towards a Beckian Approach to Social Movements

    Open Access•Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen•Sociological Research Online•2025

  • Locating the Supporter Liaison Officer in the football field

    Open Access•Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen•International Review for the…•2024

  • Generations, events, and social movement legacies

    Open Access•Mark Turner, Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen•British Journal of Sociology•2024

  • Football Fans and Social Spacing

    Open Access•Ian Woolsey•Football Fans and Social Spacing•2021

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  • The discourse of Olympic security

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  • Saying Something

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  • Images from a Neoliberal City

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  • The Governmentalities of Neoliberalism

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Unique citing works8
Citations per year4
Citation span2024 - 2026 (3)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 8
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