Italian Football in an Era of Globalisation: Neo-Patrimony, New Localism and Decline

Italy and Italian football have captured the imagination of writers and fans across the globe. The Italia ’90 world cup reaffirmed Italy’s standing as a world power in football. It also marked a turning point in global sport. At the end of the twentieth century, global sport underwent a period of profound transformation. In parallel to similar process taking place elsewhere in politics, economics and society, sport was entering a period of de-regulation and commodification, which impacted national leagues and local fans. Despite the intensification of transnational global networks resulting from de-regulation, individual nation states still hold significant power. Likewise, national leagues are still significant to football clubs despite the growth of global markets and transnational competitions. Yet these global processes of commodification and de-regulation have impacted fans in vastly different ways. This thesis provides analysis of Italian football in relation to the impact of the changing global political economy. Through analysis of the Italian political economy, it will identify the complex personal networks operating across Italian business, politics and football. This has witnessed the emergence of a number of significant charismatic leaders who operate across these networks and utilise patronage to gain an advantage. These patrimonial networks were initially successful, as Italian football quickly adapted to the changing global economy. However, it has not capitalised on this early success. Italian clubs are struggling financially in relation to their European peers. This has been compounded by a series of crises have impacted Italian football. The crises within Italian society and football have impacted the engagement of fans. Political engagement has fallen and this is replicated in the stadiums. The historical failure of the Italian state to impose itself has been further undermined by globalisation processes. Traditional regional identities have been reinforced as globalisation has further weakened the nation state. Changes to the patterns of consumption have combined with these traditional identities and has led to a greater particularisation in society. Individualism and regionalism have grown, and this has led to a decline in engagement with wider public life and social capital. One aspect of this decline has been demonstrated by several high profile violent incidents, and deaths at Italian matches. The impact of this decline will be addressed in relation to the formation of supporters’ groups and the match-day experiences of fans. Ultimately this decline is financially affecting the clubs which further contributes to the overall crisis within Italian football

Crusaders and spartans: The performance of masculinity at the Euro 2012 Championships

Mark Doidge is an early career academic whose research and teaching primarily focus on globalisation, performance and sport. In this post he discusses the construction of homogenous national masculine culture in the context of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship

Football Italia

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Football has undergone a period of transformation over the last thirty years. Despite these global processes, different national leagues have adapted in different ways. After an initial period of success directly after Italia ’90, Italian football has gone through a period of sustained crisis. It has been blighted by financial mismanagement, corruption scandals and fan violence. This has impacted Italy's ability to compete on a global stage. Football Italia accounts for the development of Italian football in relation to the wider global transformations impacting football and addresses the reasons for Serie A's initial success and current malaise. Theoretically, this book locates Italian football within the wider power network of the state and how this has impacted political engagement. After an historical overview of the Italian political economy, Football Italia highlights how football is part of the wider political network. Football clubs are owned by powerful businessmen (and they are all men) who are also politicians. This centralisation of power within a small hegemonic group inhibits change. Within this broader structure, wider corruption scandals continue; from regular match-fixing scandals to doping. Meanwhile, stadiums are crumbling and police over-aggressive. It is within this context that we must place the fans. Both the ultras and supporters who attend official supporters’ clubs are disaffected and without the power to change the status quo. Consequently, Italian football has been in decline throughout the 21st century

Football Italia

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Football has undergone a period of transformation over the last thirty years. Despite these global processes, different national leagues have adapted in different ways. After an initial period of success directly after Italia ’90, Italian football has gone through a period of sustained crisis. It has been blighted by financial mismanagement, corruption scandals and fan violence. This has impacted Italy's ability to compete on a global stage. Football Italia accounts for the development of Italian football in relation to the wider global transformations impacting football and addresses the reasons for Serie A's initial success and current malaise. Theoretically, this book locates Italian football within the wider power network of the state and how this has impacted political engagement. After an historical overview of the Italian political economy, Football Italia highlights how football is part of the wider political network. Football clubs are owned by powerful businessmen (and they are all men) who are also politicians. This centralisation of power within a small hegemonic group inhibits change. Within this broader structure, wider corruption scandals continue; from regular match-fixing scandals to doping. Meanwhile, stadiums are crumbling and police over-aggressive. It is within this context that we must place the fans. Both the ultras and supporters who attend official supporters’ clubs are disaffected and without the power to change the status quo. Consequently, Italian football has been in decline throughout the 21st century

‘Friends that last a lifetime’:the importance of emotions amongst volunteers working with refugees in Calais

The European ‘refugee crisis’ has generated a broad movement of volunteers offering their time and skills to support refugees across the continent, in the absence of nation states. This article focuses on volunteers who helped in the informal refugee camp in Calais called the ‘Jungle’. It looks at the importance of emotions as a motivating factor for taking on responsibilities that are usually carried out by humanitarian aid organizations. We argue that empathy is not only the initial motivator for action, but it also sustains the voluntary activity as volunteers make sense of their emotions through working in the camp. This type of volunteering has also created new spaces for sociability and community, as volunteers have formed strong emotional and relational bonds with each other and with the refugees. Finally, this article contributes to the growing body of literature that aims at repositioning emotions within the social sciences research to argue that they are an important analytical tool to understand social life and fieldwork