Consuming Football in Late Modern Life

Book excerpt: Consuming Football in Late Modern Life explores the phenomenon of football (soccer) fandom as consumption in the age of late modernity. By centralising fandom within the sociology of consumption, the book examines how this phenomenon equates to a fluid series of consumption activities that are practiced in the course of everyday life. In turn, the work departs from much of the existing literature that features exceptional properties of fanatical fans, in order to emphasise the position that seemingly trivial acts of consumption can have a profound influence on the construction, maintenance and evolution of football fandom cultures. Containing up to date research findings derived from a programme of interviews with a sample of football fans, Kevin Dixon examines the social, emotional, economic and technological implications of consumption as fans participate in and respond to the demands of consumer life.