Football Fandom, Sexualities and Activism: A Cultural Relational Sociology (Critical Research in Football)

By: Peter Millward

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Synopsis: This is the first book to examine the growing movement of organised networks of LGBT+ football supporters, exploring activists’ biographies and the meanings they ascribe to participation in identity politics-centred social movements. The book draws upon in-depth original research into the Pride in Football LGBT+ football supporters’ network in the UK, alongside comparative material from other countries. It is also the first book to apply a cultural relational sociological framework to the study of football fans and supporters’ groups, marking an important theoretical step forward that opens up new perspectives in the sociology of sport, the sociology of collective action and social movements, and the sociologies of genders and sexualities in the twenty-first-century world. As the struggle for cultural rights and recognition of LGBT+ communities continues, with football fandom providing an important site for understanding these issues given its historically embedded hegemonic masculine culture, and in the aftermath of gay male football player Jake Daniels’ ‘coming out’ in May 2022, the book offers timely insights into new social movements, the consumption of sport, and the experiences of people from a diversity of sexualities. This is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the sociology of sport, football, fandom, gender, sexualities, social theory, or social movements.