Not long to go now..

The programme will be available in the next day or two. We have roughly 20 speakers in  parallel sessions and a keynote by Prof Richard Giulianotti, author of Globalization and Football. (with Robertson, Sage 2009), Ethics, Money and Sport (with Walsh, Routledge 2006) and Sport: A Critical Sociology. (Oxford: Polity Press 2004)

Please register your attendance here:

http://mmufootballconference.eventbrite.co.uk

One week to go for Abstracts!

Just a reminder about submitting abstracts – by end of business on the 5th April 2012

Send to d.hynes@mmu.ac.uk

Conference will be held in Manchester Metropolitan University with an evening wine reception to be held in Manchester’s Town Hall

 

Call for papers

Call for abstracts:

The apparent globalisation and commercialisation of football has led to much criticism from both academic and media commentators that it is no longer the People’s Game. The changing structures of ownership within top level football are characterised by the increase of international financial investors keen to associate themselves and their businesses with globally recognised club brands, personified by teams such as Manchester United and Real Madrid. That said, most football clubs continue to be firmly embedded within local contexts and often within close geographical proximity to traditional fan bases. Despite commercialisation, even the biggest football clubs remain committed to local community development, contributing huge social value in otherwise deprived neighbourhoods and cities. This conference gathers together interdisciplinary research in the UK to explore the following themes:

• From the local to the global – who are football’s communities?
• What is the changing nature of supporter demographics and fan culture?
• Football branding and marketing – is it all about global expansion?
• How are football clubs and their supporters engaging with equality and diversity?
• What strategies have football clubs deployed for engaging with their communities?
• To what extent do football clubs contribute to urban and economic development within local communities?

• A meditated spectacle?

The conference will be held on the 1st of June and will be followed by an evening reception.
The conference is free to attend. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent by 5pm April 5th 2012 to d.hynes@mmu.ac.uk
For further information, or to submit an abstract please contact:
Dr. Deirdre Hynes
Tel: 01612474608

Football and its communities

The apparent globalisation and commercialisation of football has led to much criticism from both academic and media commentators that it is no longer the People’s Game. Certainly the changing structures of ownership within top level football is characterised by the increasing of international financial investors keen to associates themselves and their businesses with globally recognised club brands, personified by teams such as Manchester United and Real Madrid. That said, most football clubs continue to be firmly embedded within local contexts and often within close geographical proximity to traditional fan bases. Despite commercialisation, even the biggest football clubs remain committed to local community development, contributing huge social value in otherwise deprived neighbourhoods and cities. In a context where football is embedded in a multi-scalar local and global networks, which tie together a multiplicity of stakeholders from international business to a variety of local interests, binary conceptualisations of football such as local/global or authentic/inauthentic, are no longer appropriate to interrogate the complex and dynamic relationship between football and its communities. This conference, therefore, aims to together interdisciplinary research in the UK to explore the following themes:

• From the local to the global – who are football’s communities?
• What is the changing nature of supporter demographics and fan culture?
• Football branding and marketing – is it all about global expansion?
• How are football clubs and their supporters engaging with equality and diversity?
• What strategies are football clubs deployed for engaging with their communities?
• To what extent do football clubs contribute to urban and economic development within local communities?

Hello world!

One day football & communities symposium 2012

Location: Manchester 1st June 2012