This book focuses on the football stadium as a political space and examines how stadiums can be viewed as the objects and catalysts of political change. Rather than acting as functional constructions designed merely to host football games, stadiums stand out in the urban landscape as landmarks that serve as gathering points for large communities.

The manifestation of the political in football stadiums can be heard in the discontent voiced by supporter activism; in the use of stadiums for national and local identity politics; in attempts to instrumentalize emotions by both totalitarian and democratic regimes; among fan groups in political uprisings, and in the surveillance of fans through e-tickets and seat allocation.

This edited collection brings together a variety of case studies from a wide range of different contexts. Contributors stem from political science, sociology, history, anthropology, human geography and urbanism. As such, the book redefines andbroadens what we understand as the political dimension of the football stadium.

Provides an innovative contribution to the literature on football stadiums Illustrate how football stadiums can become stages of political antagonism Offers an interdisciplinary approach that will be of interest to students and researchers in various fields

Autorentext

Basak Alpan is Associate Professor in European Politics and Political Sociology at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. Katarzyna Herd is researcher at the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences at Lund University, Sweden. Albrecht Sonntag is Professor at the EU-Asia Institute at ESSCA School of Management in Angers, France.

Inhalt
Introduction, Alpan and Sonntag.- 2. Demographic Trends in Ten Major European Leagues, Özgehan Senyuva and Ramon Llopis-Goig.- Part 1. Classical Stadium Politics in the Age of Fascism 3. The Stadio Mussolini or the Avatars of Football Stadiums, Paul Dietschy.- 4. What's in a Name? The City of Stuttgart and the Toponymical Journey of its Football Stadium, Albrecht Sonntag.- Part 2. Contemporary Case Studies.- 5. The Stade de France and Wembley as Social Space: a Tale of Two Stadiums, Hugh Dauncey.- 6. The Global Branding of Camp Nou, Hunter Shobe.- 7. Spatial Aspects of Identity Differentiation Stadiums in Bosnia, Özgür Dirim Özkan.- 8. Pitch Fever. Swedish Football and the Grass Dilemma, Katarzyna Herd.- Part 3. Protest Cultures and Crowd Control .- 9. Fandom as Contention: Çar Fans in Gezi Protests in Turkey, Ömer Turan and Burak Özçetin.- 10. Resistance Identitiesand Right-Wing Tendencies: The Politics of Polish Football Stadiums, Radoslav Kossakowski.- 11. Stadia as the Sites of 'The Political' : The Case of the Passolig in Turkey, Baak Alpan and Tanil Bora.- 12. The Football Stadium as a Space for Protest Female Supporters in Persepolis, Caroline Azad.- 13. The Post-Pandemic Football Stadium, Jean-Michel Roux, Natalia R. de Melo, Cristiane de S. Duarte, Elson M. Pereira.