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Occasional Nationalists: The National Ideology of Ultras

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2020

Mateusz Grodecki Open the ORCID record for Mateusz Grodecki [Opens in a new window]
Mateusz Grodecki*
Affiliation:
Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warsaw, Poland
*
*Corresponding author. Email: grodecki.mateusz@gmail.com
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Abstract

Drawing on a post-structuralist, post-Marxist discursive approach to nation, this paper aims to (1) explore the constitutive elements of the national ideology of Polish ultras, (2) study what means of expression are used in their choreographies in order to disseminate their vision of the nation, and (3) map the events that stimulate the production of choreographies related to national issues. The study is based on the content analysis of ultras’ displays using data from a print fanzine devoted to football fandom culture in Poland. The results indicate that the national ideology of Polish ultras can be viewed as a resistance ideology. They also reveal that the national ideology of ultras is only presented in particular contexts and is not a dominant issue in their performances. The study introduces the concept of occasional nationalism, which can be a useful analytical tool to map and quantify the presence of nation in practices of articulation of a particular community.

Keywords

ultrasPolandoccasional nationalismdiscourse analysisnational identity
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 49 , Issue 3: Special Issue on Internationalism in Times of Nationalism: Yugoslavia, Nonalignment, and the Cold War , May 2021 , pp. 562 - 575
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Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

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