Football Hooliganism and the Modern World

The study of football hooliganism, now recognized as a global phenomenon, has been dominated by the English example & by English theorising. This paper examines & criticises the initial wave of English theories that sought to explain football hooliganism, in part by subjecting these ideas to data drawn from Scotland. The paper discusses recent English theories of football hooliganism & argues that, while these often purport to criticise old theories, they actually commit many of the same errors. The paper ends by suggesting that foot ball hooliganism has been both badly studied & over-studied, & that it has lost all power to tell us much about developments in modern society