Professional Football and Working Class Culture: English Theories and Scottish Evidence

Abstract

This paper reviews certain theories outlined by Taylor, Clarke, Critcher, Dunning et al which try to set out the relations between professional football and working class culture and which, as part of this, seek to explain football hooliganism as resulting from changes in these relationships. Such theories draw on English evidence and English forms and this paper provides some historical and contemporary evidence, concerning hooliganism and community tics, about a major Scottish club – Rangers FC – to indicate that the parallels and causal trajectories these theories suggest do not seem to hold good north of the border. In conclusion, some additional points are made about English theories and Scottish football in order to argue that a good deal more research is required if we want to understand either the symbolic significance of football in working class culture or football hooliganism.