Risk, security and technology: governing football supporters in the twenty-first century

Abstract

This paper critically examines the security and risk management technologies that are being used to conduct and pre-empt the behaviour of football supporters. It is shown how, in the Netherlands, pre-emptive risk management in the governing of football supporters involves a dispersed and fragmented set of state and non-state actors that engage in the process of identifying, registering, classifying, monitoring, profiling and punishing ‘risky’ supporters, with important implications for supporters' civil liberties. The paper concludes by proposing two broad avenues for future research drawing on the work of Michel Foucault: the interaction between technologies of domination and technologies of the self, and the modes of resistance or ‘counter-conduct’ in the everday practices of football supporters.