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Supporters, Followers, Fans and Flaneurs: a taxonomy of spectator identities in football

Giulianotti, R.

Authors

R. Giulianotti



Abstract

World football (or soccer) has undergone an intensive hypercommodification over the past decade or so. This article examines the impact of this process on forms of spectator identification with top professional football clubs. Drawing upon previous analyses by Taylor and Critcher (on football) and the theories of Bryan Turner (on body culture), the article advances four ideal types of spectator identity: supporters, followers, fans, and flâneurs. The broad trend in sports identification is away from the supporter model (with its hot, traditional identification with local clubs) and toward the more detached, cool, consumer-orientated identification of the flâneur.

Citation

Giulianotti, R. (2002). Supporters, Followers, Fans and Flaneurs: a taxonomy of spectator identities in football. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 26(1), 25-46. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723502261003

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Feb 1, 2002
Deposit Date Jan 27, 2009
Journal Journal of Sport and Social Issues
Print ISSN 0193-7235
Electronic ISSN 1552-7638
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 26
Issue 1
Pages 25-46
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723502261003

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