Building social capital: Polish football supporters through the lens of James Coleman’s conception

Abstract

The purpose of the presented study is to understand and describe the mechanisms for generating social capital in the groups of devoted football supporters in Poland, by: (a) exploring those features of football supporters’ social structures that are essential for creating social capital and enabling them to maintain it within those groups; and (b) trying to identify the historical processes which foster emergence of these features in supporters’ social structures. The presented analysis is part of a wider research project on Polish football supporters’ social capital. It draws on a qualitative approach based on the triangulation of a variety of methods: on-going ethnography, participant observation, individual interviews and content analysis (internet forums, book biographies, magazines, zines and qualitative research materials from previous research). Drawing on Coleman’s concept, this study identifies the presence of specific forms of social capital ( appropriate social organization, obligations and expectations, norms and effective sanctions and information channels) and internal factors ( ideology, closure and stability) facilitating maintenance of this ‘source’ in the structures of devoted supporters’ groups in Poland. The results show also that social capital is created on the stands and then transferred to the other areas of social life. Furthermore, the social capital used in areas other than where it was first created can strengthen efficiency and trust in the original organization. Further, external factors like the co-production process and ‘war’ with the state are considered as variables fostering the emergence of social capital in the analysed structures. However, these same external factors also made those structures very exclusive.