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“We Will Never Be What You Want Us to Be”: Young Football Fans and the Ultras Centre

  • Ilaria Pitti
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Abstract

This chapter focuses on a case study conducted on a group of young professional football fans (ultras) in Italy. Combining biographical interviews with participant observations, the research has analysed the process through which these young people have transformed an occupied building in a social centre which proposes services and leisure activities. The analysis of the collected data highlights how unconventional political practices allow them to overcome a tendency towards “preventive apathy” deriving from the experience of social marginalisation and stigmatisation. Discussing how unconventional political participation allows them to affirm their presence without changing what they are, the chapter reflects on the relationship between participation and recognition in young people’s political practices.

Keywords

Ultras Football fans Unconventional political participation Social centres Social stigmatisation Recognition 
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© The Author(s) 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  • Ilaria Pitti
    • 1
  1. 1.School of Humanities, Education and Social SciencesÖrebro UniversityÖrebroSweden

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