-rr. University of Stirling Raymond Boyle Thesis entitled: Football and Cultural Identity in Glasgow and Liverpool Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 1995 Abstract This project examines the relationship between football, the media and the constitution and reconstitution of cultural identities within Glasgow and Liverpool. It explores the extent to which a range of contemporary religious, political and national identities can be understood by focusing on the role that football and the support for particular clubs, play in their formation. Throughout, there is a concern with the relationship between supporters, the clubs, the media and identity-formation. There is also a realisation of the importance of placing this material within an historical framework, which emphasises how political, economic and social changes have all shaped the specific relationships in each city. This is achieved through the use of a number of case studies. The geographical areas used for the studies are the west of Scotland and the north-west of England, with specific attention focused on the cities of Glasgow and Liverpool and the football supporters within these cities. There has long been a strong connection between football and a range of social identities in these two cities. This study examines the theoretical debates regarding issues of the formation of identity in contemporary society, and argues for the need to have contextually grounded studies informing these broader theoretical discussions. This project, focusing on religious, political and cultural expressions of collective identity, emphasises the continual need to be wary of unproblematically allocating a central role to the media in any process of identity-formation. It suggests that in the cities of Glasgow and Liverpool today a range of more socially and historically grounded factors are crucial in understanding the configurations of collective expression which football support provides for many in these cities. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Philip Schlesinger for his help and encouragement throughout the duration of this project. His comments and suggestions were always detailed and valuable, and any speed of completion is in no small part due to the quality of his supervision. Also thanks to Mike Cormack and Peter Meech for their comments and time. A big thank you to the many people who gave of their time to talk to me in both Glasgow and in Liverpool. In particular Paul and Chrissie for the generous hospitality which they extended to me on one of my visits to Liverpool. In addition, thanks to the numerous people whom over the years I have talked informally to about football, and although they may not always have realised it, also issues of identity. To many of you being a football supporter means more than simply attending matches. I hope that what follows does justice to the important part that the sport occupies in so many lives, and in so doing sheds some lighton the reasons why it means so much to so many. Contents Abstract Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Part 1: Theory, methods and history Chapter 1 Questions of theory: sport, media and culture 3 Chapter 2 Issues of methodology 29 Chapter 3 A socio-economic history of Glasgow and Liverpool 38 Part II: Football and identity in contemporary Glasgow and Liverpool Chapter 4 History and tradition 67 Chapter 5: Religion, religious labelling and education 92 Chapter 6: Political, cultural and national identities 117 Chapter 7: The media and identity-formation 145 Conclusion 175 Appendix I 179 Appendix II 181 Bibliography 182 'It is human nature to belong to a society, and to find value in belonging to it. We are born into relationships, and we live and grow through relationships. There is a whole range of such forms, variable in different places and times, but any actual forms are close and specific to those who are living in and through them.' Raymond Williams (1983) Towards 2000, Penguin, London. Page 179. 'I get a sense of history when I hear the old guys talking about sport. [1 They've seen the Lisbon Lions, the Famous Five and Jim Baxter. []When I meet new people I usually end up judging them by how much they know about football.' Gordon Legge (1991) Hillsborough, In Between Talking About The Football, Polygon Press, Edinburgh. Page 75/76. Introduction 'Like Liverpudlians, Glaswegians pride themselves on their corporate sense of humour, their love of an eccentric, their ability to laugh loudly in the darkness. If this is the schizophrenic soul of Glasgow, then football is its beating heart.' Jan Moir, A man of two halves, The Observer Life Magazine, 17 September 1995. This thesis attempts to illustrate the complex nature of contemporary identities, specifically by focusing on the cities of Glasgow and Liverpool. An examination of the central position that football occupies in the cultural life of each city allows us to investigate the relationship between various religious, political and cultural identities. What is of central interest here is the extent to which football, as a cultural form, has become interconnected with specific collective identities in these cities. By looking at the two cities, we can also investigate how accurate is the assumption often made that the cities are similar in character, both having experienced a substantial influx of Irish immigrants in the 19th century. Or, is it the case that there are fundamental differences between Glasgow and Liverpool, for example, in terms of the relationship between religious identity and particular political and cultural identities in the cities? The work that follows is divided into two parts. In Part I, the first three chapters set. out the theoretical, methodological and historical frameworks within which the latter chapters need to be located. Part II, draws heavily upon interviews carried out in Glasgow and Liverpool and focuses on the contemporary situation in both cities. Chapter 4 examines the interplay between football and various narratives relating to history and tradition which centre on the clubs, the cities and their supporters. The following chapter investigates the role that religious identity and religious labelling play in the process of boundary-marking between communities in the cities. This line of analysis is further developed in Chapter 6 when attention is turned to the 1 relationship between political and cultural identities among the supporters. The role of the media in the process of identity-formation is highlighted in chapter 7 and scrutinised in the light of the conclusions which have been drawn from the previous chapters. By comparing and contrasting the cities of Glasgow and Liverpool, it is hoped that new evidence is shed on the experiences and relationships that exist within and to some extent between the cities. While this work constitutes a specific case-study, it should also be viewed as a contribution to the growing literature which concerns itself with trying to understand the complex process of identity-formation in contemporary societies. 2 Part 1: Theory, methods and history Chapter 1 Questions of theory: sport, media and culture 3 Section 1: Sociological and historical encounters with sport Section 2: Sport, media and national identity Section 3: Cultural consumption, ethnography and youth culture Section 4: Mapping the theoretical field Chapter 2 Issues of methodology 29 Chapter 3 A socio-economic history of Glasgow and Liverpool 38 Section 1: The Irish in 19th century Britain Section 2: Glasgow, Liverpool and the Irish Section 3: The Origins of the Clubs Section 4: Debates about the the cultural role of the clubs in Scottish society Chapter 1: Questions of theory: sport, media and culture. 'Sport is at once both trivial and serious, inconsequential yet of symbolic significance. [1 Sport in many cases informs and refuels the popular memory of communities, and offers a source of collective identification and community expression for those who follow teams and individuals.' John Sugden and Alan Tomlinson, Soccer culture, national identity and the World Cup, in Sugden and Tomlinson (eds.) (1994) page 3 '...where Ii Sole was available most of the prisoners, including politicals, read La Gazzetta dello Sport.' Observations made while in prison in Milan by Antonio Gramsci, in David Forgacs (ed.) (1988) A Gramsci Reader, Lawrence and Wishart, London, page 376. Introduction What this chapter seeks to do is to review the previous work that engages with aspects of the relationship between sport, media and identity. Section one examines the treatment of sport in sociological and historical encounters, while the second section deals specifically with the writing concerned with media sport. The latter two sections review work concerned with the ethnography of popular culture and outline the frame of reference within which this work is located. Section 1: Sociological and historical encounters with sport This section will examine the theoretical debates that have informed the study of sport in the social sciences. An excellent overview of the position of sport within social theory is provided by Jarvie and Maguire (1994). In their book they trace the influence that major sociological traditions have had on the sociology of sport and leisure. In the 3 context of this work, while sociological encounters with sport are discussed, specific attention here is paid to the position of sport within the particular field of media/cultural studies. Until recently, sociology has been largely indifferent to suggestions that the position of sport, and indeed leisure, in modern society was worthy of serious and sustained investigation. Leisure was viewed as unimportant, or at its most simplistic, as the antithesis of work. Sport was perhaps one of the last major areas of human activity to be subjected to rigorous examination by sociologists. The last ten to fifteen years has seen a sea-change in attitudes towards the sociological study of sport and leisure (see Critcher 1992).