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Ticket Prices Campaigns, Urban Space, and Twitter: Social Networks and Storied Connections

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Collective Action and Football Fandom

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology ((PSRS))

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Abstract

This chapter shows how football supporters are embedded in social networks and how these networks are mobilized for a protest movement against economic elements of football. The chapter starts by highlighting that the neo-classical economic assumptions of rationality and perfect competition are problematic in the football marketplace, especially as the chapter goes on to show how supporters are socially embedded in social networks. From there, Twitter networks of two prominent fan movements against economic factors in football were analysed. The results show that these online network structures created by supporters were structured through weak ties and short information paths, which were central network mechanisms to facilitate efficient communication and resistance.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The cumulative value of Premier League broadcasting rights was £3.182 billion across the previous three seasons, compared to £5.5 billion across the three seasons from 2013 to 2014 (see David and Millward 2014; Millward 2017).

  2. 2.

    ‘Scouse’ is a term associated with those who hail from the elastic boundaries of cultural understandings of Liverpool as a city (see Belchem 2006; Boland 2008; Millward 2009b; Rookwood and Millward 2011).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Jamie Cleland

  2. School of Sport and Service Management, University of Brighton, Eastbourne, UK

    Mark Doidge

  3. School of Humanities & Social Science, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

    Peter Millward

  4. Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK

    Paul Widdop

Authors
  1. Jamie Cleland
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  2. Mark Doidge
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  3. Peter Millward
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  4. Paul Widdop
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Cleland, J., Doidge, M., Millward, P., Widdop, P. (2018). Ticket Prices Campaigns, Urban Space, and Twitter: Social Networks and Storied Connections. In: Collective Action and Football Fandom. Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73141-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73141-4_6

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