Disabled People As Football Fans Introduction
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Durham E-Theses Supporting the Fans: Learning-disability, Football Fandom and Social Exclusion SOUTHBY, KRIS How to cite: SOUTHBY, KRIS (2013) Supporting the Fans: Learning-disability, Football Fandom and Social Exclusion, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/7004/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk Kris Southby Supporting the Fans: Learning-disability, Football Fandom and Social Exclusion In Britain, within the contemporary drive of using sport to tackle the isolation of socially excluded groups, association football (football) fandom has been implicated in many policy documents as a possible site for learning-disabled people to become more socially included. However, whilst there is some evidence of the benefits of playing football for learning-disabled people, there is little evidence to support these claims. Drawing on empirical data from learning-disabled people about their experiences of football fandom and from relevant authorities responsible for facilitating the fandom of learning-disabled people, this thesis provides a critical analysis of the opportunities to tackle social exclusion that football fandom provides learning-disabled people. This includes examining the experience of football fandom for the learning-disabled people involved, any opportunities for social inclusion football fandom provides, and the response of relevant football authorities to learning- disabled fans. The thesis concludes that whilst football fandom offers social benefits to learning- disabled people in terms of opportunities for social interaction, a sense of belonging and a shared social identity that go some way towards tackling their social exclusion, football fandom is unlikely to result in the ‘social inclusion’ characterised by Government. Supporting the Fans Learning-disability, Football Fandom and Social Exclusion Kris Southby PhD Thesis School of Applied Social Science, Durham University 2012 Table of Contents Statement of Copyright ........................................................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 2 Prologue: I like football, but I’m not a fan .............................................................................................. 3 Chapter 1- Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 5 Defining learning disability ..................................................................................................................... 5 Framing the research in a policy context ................................................................................................ 5 Structure of the thesis ............................................................................................................................ 7 Chapter 2 - Literature Review ................................................................................................................. 9 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 9 From bad to sick to out of place: Changing perceptions of learning disability ...................................... 9 Pre-industrial: too poor to care? ...................................................................................................... 10 Industrial revolution: the rising demands of economic efficiency and medical authority. .............. 10 Post-industrial society: the rise of normalisation... .......................................................................... 12 ...and the social model ...................................................................................................................... 13 The cultural model ............................................................................................................................ 15 Learning-disabled people in the discourse of social exclusion and inclusion ....................................... 16 The advantage of ‘social exclusion’ .................................................................................................. 17 The cause of social exclusion – a lack of social capital ..................................................................... 18 Tackling social exclusion by promoting social inclusion ................................................................... 21 Leisure and sport to tackling social exclusion ....................................................................................... 29 Leisure and sport to tackle the exclusion of learning-disable people .............................................. 32 The role of football fandom in tackling exclusion for learning-disabled people .................................. 35 Are football fans a homogenous group? .......................................................................................... 36 The creation of football identities .................................................................................................... 39 Football identity and modern communities ..................................................................................... 43 Research Questions .............................................................................................................................. 46 Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 48 Chapter 3 – Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 50 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 50 Myself as researcher ............................................................................................................................. 51 Researching with learning-disabled people .......................................................................................... 52 Inclusion, participation or emancipation? ........................................................................................ 53 The research design .............................................................................................................................. 57 Qualitative methodology – understanding the subjective experience ............................................ 58 Entering the field .................................................................................................................................. 60 Involving ‘officials’............................................................................................................................. 63 Involving learning-disabled fans ....................................................................................................... 64 The fans ............................................................................................................................................. 67 Informed consent .............................................................................................................................. 72 The research relationship ................................................................................................................. 73 Research instruments ........................................................................................................................... 75 Interviewing ...................................................................................................................................... 76 Photo-elicitation ............................................................................................................................... 82 Participant observation ..................................................................................................................... 84 Club documents and policies ............................................................................................................ 87 Analysis ................................................................................................................................................. 88 Coding .................................................................................................. 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