Subculture Of Fans Research Articles

«They Held Each Other in a Communicative Clinch»: a Showdown in Football Fans’ Subculture (by the Example of the Revier Derby Schalke 04 vs Borussia Dortmund)

The article considers cases of verbal conflict between football fans of competing clubs. The issue is analysed by the example of the famous German (Revier) derby in which the teams Schalke 04 (Gelsenkirchen) and Borussia (Dortmund) participate. The author gives account of the origin of the discourse of rivalry between the two clubs and their fans, characterizes the derby from the point of view of sports mass media, football fans, etc. The article states a great diversity of linguistic means, styles, genres used by fans of Schalke and Borussia to achieve communicative aims, of which the main is to humiliate, offend, downgrade in a communicative clinch the so-called ‘others’, attribute negative qualities to them, besmirch them in the eyes of people around (first and foremost representing the fan culture) and so on. It distinguishes the most frequent patterns of creating ‘tension’ and provocative modality in the analyzed discourse – intertextuality, metaphorization, play on words, mixing discourses. The author emphasizes linguistic creativity of both clubs’ fans in creating conflict speech acts, stresses comic attitude in many messages, whereby humour is employed to disguise offense. As a direction for further research the author proposes surveying the discourse of rivalry in fan subculture by the example of famous derbies held in other countries. Instances are given to demonstrate verbal attacks on an adversary in the communication of the Moscow clubs Spartak’s and CSKA’s fans. The methods used are discourse, contextual, stylistic, semantic, linguistic and cultural, axiometric analysis

Subculture of female Korean culture fans: pleasure, creativity, and sisterhood

The entry of the Korean wave in the early 2000s in Indonesia, which was facilitated by internet technology, has become part of communication activities. This has led to the formation of subcultures of fans of Korean wave products, namely K-Drama and K-Pop, including women's subcultures who like K-drama and K-Pop. This subculture was built and developed through social media such as Facebook and WhatsApp. This article reviews how the digital era has changed how female fans interact to empower themselves through subcultures in the online space, mainly focusing on female fans of K-pop bands and K-dramas. Using the ethnographic research method, the research results show that along with the digital era that continues to develop, the subculture of female fans, initially formed through a physical collective group, has now evolved into a subculture of female fans formed through internet-based interactions. The subculture of female fans in the online space has become a forum for exploring pleasure, creativity, and self-empowerment through text production and reproduction of media texts supported by digital technology. Exploration of fun, creativity, and self-empowerment merged in a sense of sisterhood, participatory and collaborative culture.

The circus of liberation: Clowning as social creativity in insane clown posse's dark carnival

The Detroit band Insane Clown Posse (ICP) and their fan subculture of ‘Juggalos’ have created an alternative culture with its own symbolism, rituals, and forms of kinship, called the ‘Dark Carnival’. This article connects ICP and the Juggalo subculture to the cross-cultural study of clowning in European and Indigenous North American and Oceanian societies. It is argued that ICP and the Juggalos use clowning as a creative method to develop new ways of living and being and mount liberatory political challenges within an egalitarian counter-cultural space. ICP's clowning is situated within the post-industrial Rust Belt and is posed in relation to economic grievances, masculinity, class, Whiteness, and intergenerational violence. Clowned forms of performative violence are used in lyrics and rituals to create a communitarian ethos of ‘Juggalo family’ which accepts participants unconditionally, rejects actual violence, and eschews social taboos in favour of creating its own symbols and norms.

Contending fan engagement strategies in China's translocal economy: The case of Tibetan cyber star Ding Zhen

The Ding Zhen phenomenon saw a young Tibetan herder from Litang County of Sichuan Province gain a spotlight within China’s new-media celebrity industry, introducing a mode of translocal connectedness through a fan economy. The mode of connectedness features social engagement between Ding Zhen’s extra-local fans and a state-owned company in Litang with aims to profit from the influence of this cyber star to develop ethnic tourism, in line with the trend of using technological marketing solutions for poverty alleviation. Interacting with Litang’s media tactic, Ding Zhen’s fan communities on two Super Topics (超话) on Weibo compete to define proper fan behaviour and champion the rights and subject personhood of their idol beyond the limits of his localized identity. At the same time, the company aligns with the state’s stance on fan disciplining as a way of regulating fan friction and activism. The challenges faced by fans within the current media climate as they attempt to uphold fan subculture, as well as those faced by a highland ethnic town grappling with the complexities of unbalanced spatial development, serve as the underlying factors driving translocal cooperation and conflicts. In their intertwined situations, both extra-local fans and the local community seek empowerment, navigating their tensions towards a dynamic of accommodation.

Politics and fan communication in football stadia in Germany – a multimodal linguistic analysis of protest banners

ABSTRACT Various forms of multimodal fan communication, e.g. choreographies, chants, and banners, have been understudied in linguistic research on the language and linguistics of football to date. In particular, banners have received almost no attention despite the fact that they are one of the most visible and attention-getting forms of direct fan communication in the stadium. Fan banners are often used to visually express protest through rather unconventional and creative linguistic forms of provocation. The massive commercialization and marketization of football has been subject to fundamental criticism that has caused conflicts and tensions in which defiant fan subcultures protest the unwanted modernization and sell-out of the game. In this paper I apply a netnographic approach and analyse the linguistic-semiotic characteristics and (meta-)pragmatic functions of protest banners displayed in stadia across Germany in early 2020. The findings suggest that meaning-making through fan banners and the de-coding of that meaning necessitates an understanding of the interplay of materiality, colour, text, imagery and sometimes temporality.

РОЛЬ СУБКУЛЬТУРЫ ФУТБОЛЬНЫХ ФАНАТОВ В ФОРМИРОВАНИИ ЭКСТРЕМИСТСКИХ НАСТРОЕНИЙ В МОЛОДЕЖНОЙ СРЕДЕ

Due to the fact that youth extremism is currently one of the most dangerous problems of modern Russian society, the authors of the work turn to the subculture of football fans, which influences the formation of extremist sentiments in the youth environment. In this article, the authors of the work relate to the historical aspects of the emergence of the subculture of Russian football fanaticism, characterize fan organizations, consider their subculture, analyze the reasons for the presence of extremist and racist manifestations among fans, propose methods to combat these phenomena, including by organizing competent interaction and joint efforts of law enforcement agencies, football clubs and the fans themselves.

Смысловое пространство молодежной субкультуры футбольных фанатов

Смысловое пространство молодежной субкультуры футбольных фанатов

Phish Fan Subculture: The Possibilities of Phans’ Performance

Phish Fan Subculture: The Possibilities of Phans’ Performance

The Change Practices of the Fan Subculture from Mass Society to Network Society: Fenerbahçe Firms

İnsana ait olanı aramanın bir çabası olarak değerlendirilebilecek olan kültür, bizi karşılaştırmalı bir bilgiye, bir gündelik hayat tarihine götürür. Gündelik hayat içerisinde izini sürebileceğimiz kültürel alanlardan tribün altkültürüne odaklanan bu çalışma, Dijk’ın öne sürdüğü (2018) ‘ağ toplumu teorisi’ çerçevesinde değerlendirilmiştir. Nitel araştırma yaklaşımı çerçevesinde, taraftar gruplarının bağımsız yayınları olarak değerlendirilen fanzinlerdeki metinleri odağa alarak söylem çözümlemesi gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çalışma kapsamında incelenen fanzinlerin, tribün altkültürünün kapitalist yayın anlayışından uzaklaşarak karşı-kamusal alanları oluşturduğu görülmüştür. Elde edilen bulgular ışığında, kitle toplumu ve ağ toplumu tipolojisindeki unsurlar karşılaştırılmıştır. Bu karşılaştırmada metinlerden çalışmanın kuramsal çerçevesi dikkate alınarak kodlar aracılığıyla bölümler halinde temalar oluşturularak bu temalar tartışılmış ve yorumlanmıştır. Sonuçlar, endüstriyel ve modern olarak adlandırılan futbolun daha çok piyasalaşmasıyla, taraftar gruplarını kitlesel toplum yoğunlaşmalarından ağ toplumuna taşıdığını yansıtmaktadır. Bu durum, sosyal medya örgütlenmelerinin iletişim kanallarını artırıcı bir güç oluşturmasına rağmen tribün kültürüne bütüncül zarar verdiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Metinler bağlamında yapılan değerlendirme, tribünlerdeki modernite uygulamalarının üretim, paylaşım ve sahiplenme duygularında olumsuz duygular meydana getirdiğini göstermektedir. Ayrıca, tribün aktörleri, sosyal medya çağında tribün kültürünün metalaşmasına karşı çıkarak bu altkültürün tüm unsurlarıyla birlikte devam etmesi yönünde çaba içerisinde oldukları görülmektedir.

THE INTERNET IS TRASH: MAKING SENSE OF TOXIC NETWORKS

This panel brings together scholars studying distinct aspects of internet culture in order to make sense of the negative byproducts of online spaces. Each presenter takes on a different topic: political internet memes, fan subcultures, conscious disconnection from internet platforms, and physical digital waste to consider the consequences of internet life. Using distinct methodologies: case study interviews, ethnography, textual studies and histories, and autoethnography, this panel considers what internet scholars can learn from the unsavory parts of the internet. Working with notions of internet waste, these presentations serve to build out a broad set of perspectives about the potential value in the trash internet, what we can learn from it, and how we can think more deeply about that which has little value or consideration in the internet life of clicks, posts, shares, likes, and follows. Through these presentations, the speakers ask the audience to consider their own views of internet garbage and to think about remedies to the toxic ecologies that impact life - both virtual and literal.

Субкультуры «лесные хулиганы» и «офники» в культурном пространстве молодежи

<p>В статье анализируется субкультура футбольных фанатов как форма объединения и самоорганизации молодежи. Эмпирической базой выступила серия фокусированных интервью с учащимися средней школы и колледжа г. Москвы в 2019 г. Опрашивались участники субкультуры «лесных хулиганов» и выяснялось их отношение к субкультуре «офников» внутри околофутбольного сообщества.</p><p>Рассматриваются признаки делинквентных субкультур, характерные для сообществ «лесные хулиганы» и «офники»: наличие своей территории, организационной структуры, некоторой степени солидарности, регулярное совершение различных правонарушений, демонстрация субкультурных знаков, обеспечивающих идентификацию членов сообщества, насильственный характер действий, участие в групповых драках, «охрана» территории и др.<strong> </strong>Саморегуляция девиантного поведения внутри субкультуры футбольных фанатов отражает процессы размежевания, отделения так называемых правильных фанатов от офников, организаторов акций «Поясни за шмот».<strong></strong></p>

Secondary Multimodal Discourse of the Modern English Mass Culture as a Phenomenon of the Convergence Culture

The article focuses on psycholinguistic features of the secondary multimodal discourse of the modern English mass culture as a linguistic, social and cultural phenomenon and a specific type of communication with a peculiar context. This research paper represents the unique and valid definition of the secondary type discourse, its role, and place as the phenomenon of the convergence culture in the modern English youth subculture.
 Based on the differentiation of such related concepts as «youth subculture» and «interpretative community» the research proves that the latter concept is a structural element of a fan subculture. Both of these two concepts model the environment of the secondary textual spaces arranging. The focus of the paper concerns the creation of interpretative communities based on large-scale transmedia projects. The latter develop narration to transfer the world or the project story to the recipient from various perspectives and in different forms.
 Another concern of the study is that development and expansion project platforms can go far beyond technical means of information creation and transfer. Transmedia project can concentrate on the primary literary source, TV series, a computer game, and different related products thus anyway contributing to the representation of the whole story. Therefore, this psycholinguistic study focuses on a large-scale factual material the Marvel Universe with its elements represented on various platforms. In combination, these elements create a cohesive plot and a compositional space.
 Based on the sociolinguistic experiment results (questionnaires of totally 100 English native speakers), it is claimed that an integrative condition of the Marvel Universe transmedia storytelling is the independence of each separate platform. The main findings of this research cede on the statistical data, the results of online-questionnaires, and show that only 15% of the respondents are acquainted with the part of the Universe represented in comics. 80% of the respondents believe that movies are the starting point for the Universe entering and thus they are perceived as independent works. Only 5% of the respondents expressed their uncertainty about the priority of one or another platform.
 Another finding is that transmedia storytelling and participatory сulture are two key features of convergence culture. The recipients of such large-scale projects lose the status of passive consumers and within the interpretative communities, they become producers of a new media content. Thus, we identify the psycholinguistic mechanism of the modern English mass culture secondary textual spaces arranging through the dominant features of a new cultural paradigm, such as an active development of participatory culture, intertextuality, multimodality, and transmedia storytelling.
 In the social and discoursive space of the youth subculture, the recipients borrow any idea, image, plot or a character from the cult textual space, convert them into diverse media formats, and expand them across all available platforms. Thus, the recipients create the unified and inseparable secondary multimodal textual space.

Game of Translations: Virtual Community doing English Translations of Chinese Online Fiction

Fan translations are an important part of global fan subculture activity, intensified especially through the new media platforms which connect producers and consumers all around the globe. One recent trend within this category is that of English translations of Chinese online fictions. It is a newly emerging form of activity which takes place on blogs connected through a blogroll. Through these channels, fans comprising blog moderators, translators, and readers can engage in exchanges which add value to the appreciation of literature. Thus, it can be imagined as a ‘virtual settlement’ (Jones, 1997) after Anderson (1983)’s ‘imagined community’. Within this community, a further observation can be made about the mechanics of this practice. Like a game, the fans act as players where they negotiate rules regarding the production of translations. Given the community-centric nature of these websites, my paper outlines the formation of ‘illusio’, or “agreed rules of the game”, a concept introduced by Bourdieu. This is operationalised using Järvinen (2007)’s framework, locating the nine elements of a ‘gamified practice’ within the interactions of this community, known as Shusheng Bar. The findings suggest that members of Shusheng Bar possess a shared history and connected future. The significance of this observation assists in understanding the dynamics of online subcultures.&nbsp

Ultimate Fighting Championship Fans: Foundations of Subcultural Stratification

ABSTRACTThe Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a professional mixed martial arts league around which a subculture of fans has developed. Using a theoretical framework for the study of collectives, this study explored foundations of social stratification within UFC subculture. Multiple modes of qualitative data were collected at a major UFC event. Social stratification was perceived by UFC fans as influenced by an individual's subcultural capital, reflected by their scope and mode of involvement in the UFC subculture; displays of UFC fandom through dress; expression through specialized mixed martial arts (MMA) discourse and knowledge; strategic social media use; and conduct at MMA events. This research also highlights the importance of digital technologies and mediated communication in studying contemporary leisure-centered subcultures.

Football Fan Subculture in Russia: Aggressive Support, Readiness to Fight, and Far Right Links

This article provides a characterisation of the right-wing football fan subculture in Russia, focusing on its relationship with the far right. It explores the virtual network across fans, hooligans, and the far right scene, and it identifies common narratives between the football fan subculture and Russia’s far right. Using the technique of the Grounded Theory Method, this article attempts to explain the link between the football subculture and the Russian far right, discussing the potential to mobilise football fans for right-wing actions. A key basis for interaction between the football subculture and right-wing activists is provided by the combination of the supporters’ readiness for fights and their sense of oppression from state policies.

A commentary on ‘<i>Little Hooliganz: The Inside Story of Glamorous Lads, Football Hooligans and Post-Subculturalism</i>’ by Professor Steve Redhead

Issue 8(2) of this Journal included the article, ‘Little Hooliganz: The Inside Story of Glamorous Lads, Football Hooligans and Post-Subculturalism’ by Prof Steve Redhead. The author is professor of Sport and Media Cultures at the Chelsea School, Brighton University, and has been carrying out research on football fan sub-cultures, including but not limited to the issue of ‘football hooliganism’, for over 20 years. He describes his work on hooliganism as part of the ‘cluster’ of postmodern sub-cultural theory, which has been under-represented since extensive academic study on the issue of football crowd disorder began in the late 1970s. Redhead considers that the phenomenon of contemporary football crowd disorder has been diminishing significantly since the early 1990s (1993: 2) and he shares the views held by academics such as Gary Armstrong and Richard Giulianotti that much of the attention given to the phenomenon, and indeed the actual social construction of it, is the result of a media-fuelled moral panic: ‘[football hooliganism] remains more or less an historical (and hysterical) mass media construction’ (1993: 3).

Chuligaństwo czy figuracja w procesie cywilizowania? Recepcja szkoły Leicester a świat polskich kibiców piłkarskich

The main aim of this article is to consider the topicality of the theoretical achievements of the Leicester School, formed by the students and continuers of Norbert Elias’s ideas, with Eric Dunning at their head. The author presents the main theses on stadium hooliganism which Dunning and his team formulated on the basis of a socio-historical analysis. The English researchers connect the behaviour of football fans with their class origins, with patterns of ‘street’ socialization, with masculinism, and with violence constituting an important aspect of daily life. They show that the social environment from which the majority of hooligans originate has not been included in the broader stream of the civilizational process. Then the author, in describing Polish football fans, makes use of certain elements of Norbert Elias’s process sociology (constituting Dunning’s analytical tool). History shows that the sub-culture of football fans is ‘becoming civilized’, although not in a uniform manner. The concept of figuration could be a valuable analytical tool for describing the community of football fans, as it is not a society separated from the outside world, but remains in a specific interdependence with it. In the analysis, the dichotomy between ‘settlers’ and ‘outsiders’ is also helpful.

Особенности саморегуляции личности в субкультуре футбольных фанатов

The paper presents some outcomes of a research on features of transition to adulthood in a specific context of the subculture of football fans. This period is analyzed from the perspective of development of self-determi¬nation mechanisms. The hypothesis was advanced that comparing features of meaning regulation and ways of life in fans and non-fans may help reveal the patterns of development. This was tested on a sample of 148 sub¬jects aged 18—30 years, among which were 73 fans and 75 non-fans. The specifics of the subjects' ways of life explored with V.P. Serkin's technique of semantic differential suggest that there are considerable differences between the fans and non-fans in the rates of activity, happiness and some other characteristics. At the same time, the rates of self-determination, meaning regulation and tolerance to uncertainty proved to be insignifi¬cant in terms of group differences. However, the conducted pattern analysis (D. Magnusson) helped to reveal four types of self-regulation and to correlate them with independent research on self-determination during the transition to adulthood. The paper concludes that studying developmental processes in subcultural contexts as identifiers of personally significant meanings can be very promising.

Sport activism and political praxis within the FC Sankt Pauli fan subculture

FC Sankt Pauli is often portrayed as a rebel football club that represents an ideal manifestation of fan centredness. But whilst the club’s reputation is mostly well earned, there is much to distinguish the fans from the club and conflict between the two is prominent and ongoing. This research, based on more than 10 years of ethnography amongst the fans and questionnaires and interviews with key individuals, looks behind the scenes to reveal how fans challenge their club, the authorities and much more beyond. Authentic voices of fan activists tell a story of fervent sport activism, fan power and resistance, alive and well inhabiting a vibrant subculture. Political praxis and protest are prolific amongst Sankt Pauli fans. By illuminating the radical sport activism of Sankt Pauli fans, this paper offers a vision for other football fans to emulate and for sport more generally to realize a more transformative potential.

Cross-cultural Cross-dressing: Japanese Graphic Novels Perform Gender in U.S.

Cross-dressing, a comedic staple in Western entertainment, usually transgresses and then reasserts gender norms, offering audiences an escapist fantasy that resolves into a happy affirmation of current social norms. However, a newly popular genre of girls’ comics features cross-dressing protagonists who push the boundaries of traditional cross-dressing comedy. Moving beyond short-lived cross-dressing escapades, these new protagonists occupy the pages of Japanese graphic novels known as Gender Benders and conscientiously negotiate gender identities and norms—literally bending gender as a category. This genre is marketed exclusively to girls and young women who have formed fan subcultures. Exploring these narratives and their representations of gender, cross-dressing, and sexuality, I analyze this Gender Bender genre and its cultural histories and influences, arguing that cultural entertainment hybridity, while risking cultural fetishism, can positively influence gender conceptualizations by revealing gender as a performance.