Entering the Field: New Perspectives on World Football

Description

As the 1994 World Cup Finals in the United States clearly demonstrated, football is the quintessential global game. One of the world's most popular arenas for the expression of conflict and emotion, it is virtually unparalleled as a site for cultural analysis. Players, officials, supporters and commentators all have key roles in a social drama incorporating the deeply symbolic and ritualistic. A powerful vehicle for ideals of masculinity, football also offers penetrating insights into the iconography of the body; manifestations of rivalry and conflict; discourses of knowledge; expressions of communitas and geo-social belonging; the celebration and denigration of the Other; and the inversion of power hierarchies through carnival. In bringing these themes together, this accessible and absorbing book by leading scholars of sport and leisure reveals football's differing meanings across cultures. It will be of interest to students and scholars in cultural studies, anthropology, sports sciences and, more simply, to anyone with a passion for this global game.

Gary Armstrong Lecturer,Department of Sport Science, Brunel University Richard Giulianotti University of Aberdeen

'Illuminating, entertaining and ...well-written.' When Saturday Comes' '[A] valuable contribution to an expanding field of academic interest in global sport and world football. Furthermore, its interpretative approach provides a richness to the study of sport which has been relatively absent until recent years.' Journal of European Area Studies 'An absorbing in-depth and profound academical study which brings to light new perspectives on world football ... a most important addition to one's library because it offers a completely new study of football spectator perception.' Malta Sunday Times 'The first serious attempt to treat the phenomenon of football in an intercultural and comparative context on a universal scale ... Encompasses a rich panorama of the 'state of the art' and prefigures the future research locations of a genuine anthropology of football.' Social Anthropology '... an excellent anthology of 13 essays that affirm football as an important cultural institution in society. ... Contributions in this volume are based on ethnographic detail, supported by interpretive and anthropological, sociological and historical analysis. The result is a richly descriptive and analytical volume describing the many disparate football cultures in the world, and providing a rich sense of the lived experience of football and football fans. ... This volume provides valuable ideas and questions to locate future research. 'Entering the Field' is insightful and absorbing, very readable, and provides a good balance between theory and practical life. Soccer and Society