Liquid fandom: neo-tribes and fandom in the context of liquid modernity

Abstract

This paper is a critique of the work of Zygmunt Bauman and Michel Maffesoli as it has been applied to the study of soccer/football fans. Liquid life is the name that Bauman gives to the experience of life within ‘liquid modernity’ – a form of modernity in which social frameworks and institutions experience a process of accelerating liquefaction. Drawing upon an autobiographical approach, the paper raises concerns about using Bauman’s analysis of solidarity in an analysis of soccer/football fans. The approaches to fandom discussed in this paper, notably Tony Blackshaw’s work, make an assumption that consumption alone provides the basis or foundation for solidarity between football fans. In contrast the paper argues that even if such a form of consumption-based fan solidarity could be demonstrated, such a form of solidarity would only ever include a small minority of fans around a handful of commercially successful teams who sell a significant amount of merchandise. Not all fans are consumers seduced by the market. Most teams are not successful on the pitch. As the vast majority of teams do not win national or international competitions but all teams maintain a following of fans that support their team. Fandom is a primary group rather than liquid modern phenomena. Maffesoli’s conception of neo-tribes again has a postmodern gloss but is rooted in a questionable biological conception of instinctual solidarity; not only does Maffesoli not support this argument with evidence, but such biological conceptions predate modernity and again say little that is new.