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View Full Version : Excellent research essay/article/thingit on Footie Hooliganism


Valheru
29 Oct 2009, 12:10 PM
Good reading for the armchair psychologist.

http://www.sirc.org/publik/football_violence.html

Football Violence and Hooliganism in Europe

Marsh, P., Fox, K., Carnibella, G., McCann, J. and Marsh, J. (1996) Football Violence in Europe. The Amsterdam Group."

Some food for thought, if you have a side order of some Wikipedia:



Collective effervescence (CE) is a perceived energy formed by a gathering of people as might be experienced at a sporting event, a carnival, a rave, or a riot. This energy can cause people to act differently than in their everyday life.

[Collective Effervescence] CE in religion

Collective effervescence is the basis for Émile Durkheim's theory of religion as laid out in his 1912 volume Elementary Forms of Religious Life. This book is largely based on studies of the Australian aborigines. Durkheim was concerned primarily with how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in the modern era.

Durkheim argues that the universal religious dichotomy of profane and sacred results from the lives of these tribe members: most of their life is spent performing menial tasks such as hunting and gathering. These tasks are profane. The rare occasions on which the entire tribe gathers together becomes sacred, and the high energy level associated with these events gets directed onto physical objects or people which then become sacred.

For Durkheim, religion is a fundamentally social phenomenon. The beliefs and practices of the sacred are a method of social organization. This explanation is detailed in Elementary Forms "Book 2/The Elementary Beliefs", chapter 7, "Origins of These Beliefs: Origin of the Idea of the Totemic Principle or Mana". According to Durkheim:

god and society are one of the same…the god of the clan…can be none other than the clan itself, but the clan transfigured and imagined in the physical form of a plant or animal that serves as a totem.[1]

The group members experience a feeling of a loss of individuality and unity with the gods and according to Durkheim, thus with the group.[2]

Iblis waswas
01 Nov 2009, 10:54 PM
Thanks Valheru, that was indeed interesting. On the racism topic discussed, a few of the guys I work with are season ticket holders and they are still very racist. Two of them, who are in their 40's now, were hooligans years ago and they harbour some disgusting attitudes. I just hope they don't pass them on to their children.

With regard to the violence prevalent at football games, I think it is a hard thing to stop. The adrenaline from fighting is such a buzz for young guys. I honestly don't know how those hell bent on causing trouble can truly be stopped all the time.