Football supporters worldwide organise protests, petitions, campaigns, workshops and congresses and are engaged in political lobbying. These expressions of supporters’ activism are nourished by both discontent with developments in football culture and an effort to change them. The aim of this methodologically driven article is to critically examine the role of digital ethnographies in exploring these processes. To reflexively explore the complex realities of recent transformations in football culture, this research study complemented offline data with online data. The use of digital data is discussed along the following dimensions: informational, representational, epistemological and relational. It is argued that the analytical dualism employed to critically discuss the relationship between online and offline spheres should be complemented with empirical duality to fully understand the role played by the digital sphere in social reality.
AutyC (2002) Football fan power and the internet: net gains?Aslib Proceedings54(5): 273–279.
2.
Beneito-MontagutR (2011) Ethnography goes online: towards a user-centred methodology to research interpersonal communication on the internet. Qualitative Research11(6): 716–735.
3.
boydD (2008) A Response to Christine Hine. In: MarkhamANBaymNK (eds) Internet inquiry: Conversations about method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 26–32.
4.
BrownA (2008) ‘Our club, our rules’: fan communities at FC United of Manchester. Soccer & Society9(3): 346–358.
5.
BundonAHurd ClarkeL (2014) Unless you go online you are on your own: blogging as a bridge in para-sport. Disability & Society. Epub ahead of print 17November2014, DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2014.973477.
6.
CashmoreEClelandJ (2012) Fans, homophobia and masculinities in association football: evidence of a more inclusive environment. The British Journal of Sociology63(2): 370–87.
7.
ClelandJ (2010) From passive to active: the changing relationship between supporters and football clubs. Soccer & Society11(5): 537–552.
8.
CrawfordG (2004) Consuming Sport: Sport, Fans and Culture. London: Routledge.
9.
DahlgrenP (2013) The Political Web: Media, participation and alternative democracy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
10.
DenzinNK (1970) The Research Act in Sociology. Chicago: Aldine.
11.
De RoseM (2009) Controcultura ultras. Cosenza: Coessenza.
12.
DoidgeM (2015) Football Italia: Italian football in an age of globalization. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
13.
EarlJKimportK (2009) Digitally Enabled Social Change: Activism in the Internet Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
14.
EynonRFryJSchroederR (2008) The ethics of internet research. In: BlankGLeeRFieldingN (eds) Handbook of Online Research Methods. Sage: London, 23–41.
15.
FlickerSHaansDSkinnerH (2004). Ethical dilemmas in research on internet communities. Qualitative Health Research14(1): 124–34.
GarciaACStandleeAIBechkoffJCuiY (2009) Ethnographic approaches to the internet and computer-mediated communicationJournal of Contemporary Ethnography38(1): 52–84.
18.
GibbonsT (2014) English National Identity and Football Fan Culture. Farnham: Ashgate.
19.
GiulianottiR (1995) Participant observation and research into football hooliganism : reflections on the problems of entree and everyday risks. Sociology of Sport Journal12(1): 1–20.
20.
GiulianottiR (2011) Sport mega events, urban football carnivals and securitised commodification: the case of the English Premier League. Urban Studies48(15): 3293–3310.
21.
GriggsG (2011) Ethnographic study of alternative sports by alternative means: list mining as a method of data collection. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics6(2): 85–91.
22.
HineC (2000) Virtual Ethnography. London: Sage.
23.
HynesDCookAM (2013) Online belongings: female fan experiences in online soccer forums. In: HutchinsBRoweD (ed.) Digital Media Sport: Technology, Power and Culture in the Network Society. New York: Routledge, 97–110.
24.
KennedyPKennedyD (2012) Football supporters and the commercialisation of football: comparative responses across Europe. Soccer & Society13(3): 327–340.
25.
KirtonADavidM (2013) Introduction: soccer’s emergent online practices. In: HutchinsBRoweD (ed.) Digital Media Sport: Technology, Power and Culture in the Network Society. New York: Routledge, 81–94.
LuptonD (2014) Digital Sociology. London: Routledge.
28.
MassucciRFerrigniN (2013) C’era una volta l’ultrà. Rome: Edizioni Eurilink.
29.
McMenemyDPoulterAO’LoanS (2005) A robust methodology for investigating old firm sectarianism online. International Journal of Web-Based Communities1(4): 488–503.
30.
MillerDSlaterD (2000) The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach. Oxford: Berg Publishers.
31.
MillwardP (2008) The rebirth of the football fanzine: using e-zines as data source. Journal of Sport & Social Issues32(3): 299–310.
32.
MillwardP (2011) The Global Football League: Transnational Networks, Social Movements and Sport in the New Media Age. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
33.
MurthyD (2008) Digital ethnography: an examination of the use of new technologies for social research. Sociology42(5): 837–855.
34.
NashR (2000) Contestation in modern English professional football: the Independent Supporters Association movement. International Review for the Sociology of Sport35(4): 465–486.
35.
NumeratoD (2015) Who says ‘no to modern football?’ Italian supporters, reflexivity, and Neo-Liberalism. Journal of Sport & Social Issues39(2): 120–138.
36.
OrgadS (2008) How can researchers make sense of the issues involved in collecting and interpreting online and offline data? In: MarkhamANBaymNK (eds) Internet Inquiry: Conversations About Method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 33–53.
37.
PalmerCThompsonK (2007) The paradoxes of football spectatorship: on-field and online expressions of social capital among the ‘grog squad’. Sociology of Sport Journal24(2): 187–205.
38.
PearsonG (2012) An Ethnography of English Football Fans: Cans, Cops and Carnivals. Manchester: MUP.
39.
PodaliriCBalestriC (1998) The ultras, racism and football culture in Italy. In: BrownA (ed.) Fanatics! Power, Identity and Fandom in Football, London: Routledge, 88–100.
40.
PoultonEDurellO (2014) Uses and meanings of ‘Yid’ in English football fandom: a case study of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Epub ahead of print 16October2014. DOI: 10.1177/1012690214554844.
41.
RoweDRuddockAHutchinsB (2010) Cultures of complaint, online fan message boards and networked digital media sport communities. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies16(3): 298–315.
42.
RuddockA (2005) LET’S KICK RACISM OUT OF FOOTBALL—AND THE LEFTIES TOO! Responses to Lee Bowyer on a West Ham website. Journal of Sport & Social Issues29(4): 369–385.
43.
Sade-BeckL (2004) Internet ethnography: online and offline. International Journal of Qualitative Methods3(2): 1–14.
44.
SeymourWS (2001) In the flesh or online? Exploring qualitative research methodologies. Qualitative Research7(3): 147–168.
45.
TestaA (2009) The UltraS: an emerging social movement?Review of European Studies1(2): 54–63.
46.
TinatiRHalfordSCarrLPopeC (2014) Big data: methodological challenges and approaches for sociological analysis. Sociology48(4): 663–681.
WelfordJGarcíaBSmithB (2015) A ‘healthy’ future? Supporters’ perceptions of the current state of English football. Soccer & Society16(2–3): 322–343.
49.
WellerM (2011) The Digital Scholar: How Technology is Changing Academic Practice. London: Bloomsbury.
50.
WilsonB (2006) Ethnography, the internet, and youth culture: strategies for examining social resistance and ‘online-offline’ relationships. Canadian Journal of Education29(1): 307–328.
51.
WilsonB (2007) New media, social movements, and global sport studies: A revolutionary moment and the sociology of sport. Sociology of Sport Journal24(4): 457–477.
52.
WilliamsJ (2007) Consumers, hooligans and activists. In: SteenRNovickJRichardsH (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Football. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 198–212.
