Whether it’s helping bring down Jose Mourinho, protesting against club ownership or rewriting a script, fan activism isn’t a passing fad. This issue, overflowing with cutting-edge work, reminds us that fans’ political mobilizations, using social media and content worlds derived from fandom, are an increasingly important point of entry into civic life.
While the majority of the essays in this collection focus on football fans, fan activism across multiple sports and global territories is also examined. The papers in this issue expand on core debates about fan activism, such as the tension between resistance and participation as competing models of engagement, the role of affect and content worlds, and the challenges to sustained mobilization.
In particular, this issue brings together a wealth of new research on fan protest stories. Often framed as social movements, these stories of fan activism illustrate how these networks bring together popular and participatory culture and discourses with a range of political and social issues, including governance, commercialization, and identity.
For example, when Blackburn Rovers faced relegation from England’s Premier League in 2012, one fan created a clever protest that involved setting a chicken free on the pitch at Ewood Park. Blackburn are owned by Venky’s, an Indian food firm, so the protest was a form of activism against the food chain’s sponsorship of the club. This is just one of many stories in this issue that show how fans’ use of social media and content worlds enables them to engage with local, national, and international politics.