"The book is an important contribution to our ethnographic knowledge of the social dimensions of non-local football fandom and the role of fan practices in diaspora communities. ... This book is engaging reading for any student or scholar with an interest in football fandom, migration and transnationalism." (idrottsforum.org, February, 2019)
1. Introduction: Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray Fans in Vienna.- 2. Approaching the Field.- 3. Entering the Field.- 4. The Plurality of us and them: performing Loyalties and Rivalries.- 5. The Intersection of Ethnicity, Gender and Social Class in Fan Narratives and Performances.- 6. Conclusion and Outlook: the Intersection of Football Fandom and Migration.
Nina Szogs is a researcher at University of Vienna, Austria and Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany and is part of the interdisciplinary European project FREE: Football Research in an Enlarged Europe (FP7). Her research focuses on intersectionality, gender and migration. She is co-editor of New Ethnographies of Football in Europe (Palgrave, 2016).
This book studies how transnationalisation, Europeanisation and migration processes intersect with football fandom, through an analysis of the transnational narratives and practices of Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray football fans in Vienna, Austria. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Austria, Turkey and Germany, the author analyses the ways in which narratives about football fandom are often linked to migrant experiences, including practices of (self‑)culturalization in the diasporic context in Austria. The book shows how constructed ethnicities and also masculinities and femininities meet in football fan performances and in the construction of what makes a “proper” football fan. Turkish football fandom is a field where powerful prejudices and stereotypes amalgamate and interact. This study enables the reader to look into migration processes and discussions about related topics from a different angle: the love of a football club.