Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 10:41:28 -0400
Subject: Re: AUT: Hooliganism and class composition
From: Enda Brophy <2eob-AT-qlink.queensu.ca>


Anthony-

This has been something I've been interested in for quite some time 
although never in a get-off-the-couch kind of way.  Years ago I read a 
wonderful book by Bill Buford, "Among the Thugs?", which, in its own 
way, does something of a class composition of a bunch of UK fans.  He 
follows them around Europe between the eighties and the nineties, and 
needless to say he's "surprised" at the good jobs (read immaterial) 
that many of them have.

Sadly, of course, I think it's pretty obvious that the majority of 
hardcore fan groups are pretty cosy with ultra-right, racist ideologies 
(although there are exceptions).  Buford's book demonstrates this in 
the case he's looking at, and there are only too many other examples.  
 From what I remember, in Yugoslavia Arkan made use of groups of Red 
Star Belgrade fans in order to form his death squads in the early 
nineties.

In Rome, sadly fan chiefs have had long relationships with the 
extraparliamentary right, with some of them actually implicated in the 
murders of leftist militants as far back as the seventies.

But, back to Britain, there's some interesting work out of academics 
like Garry Whannel and Alan Tomlinson, but you'd have to mostly add the 
class composition part to their work yourself.

e.


On Thursday, Apr 15, 2004, at 08:52 Canada/Eastern, Anthony iles wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I'm writing a article about immaterial workers and the cuture 
> industries in Britain and currently looking for articles to back up 
> some thoughts I have about parallel yet diverging forms of class power 
> in the workplace and leisure environments and the state's reaction to 
> these forms of power. Namely I would like to propose the phenomenon of 
> football hooliganism, other forms of class delinquency and its 
> attendant cycle of media hysteria as a parallel narrative to the 
> defeat of 'heroic' labour in the miners struggle in 1980's Britain. I 
> know Stuart Hall's article 'Policing the Crisis' covers some of these 
> tensions, but can anyone point me in the direction of good texts 
> online about hooliganism and class composition? I'm trying to focus on 
> the UK, but obviously any really good analysis of these issues would 
> be useful for me at the moment.
>
> Thanks
> Anthony Iles
>
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