Geoff Pearson is Lecturer in Law at the University of Liverpool’s Management School

"...Pearson has provided us with a much needed fresh perspective on football fan research. It should become a leading text in the field. There are three excellent participation observation studies presented here, all conducted by the author, from a period of fifteen years of fieldwork.""The book is outstanding.""It is a subtle, engaging account of the interaction of fans who sometimes become involved in what the media call 'football hooliganism'...""... we should be eternally grateful that Geoff Pearson did the hard yards and embedded himself within these fan groups for so long and produced such an accessible, thoughtful and innovative book."An ethnography of English football fans is an extremely thorough ethnography of football fans, describing their motivations and behaviour. It will be of great importance to anyone interested in the behaviour of football fans and in management of football crowds.

• 1. Introduction2. Ethnography: theory, method and practice 3. The football carnival 4. Identity and expression 5. Fans or hooligans? 6. Authority and social control 7. Alcohol and the effectiveness of alcohol controls 8. Attitudes to gender, sexuality, race and disability 9. The impact of technology 10. Conclusions ReferencesIndex

Geoff Pearson is Lecturer in Law at the University of Liverpool’s Management School

"...Pearson has provided us with a much needed fresh perspective on football fan research. It should become a leading text in the field. There are three excellent participation observation studies presented here, all conducted by the author, from a period of fifteen years of fieldwork.""The book is outstanding.""It is a subtle, engaging account of the interaction of fans who sometimes become involved in what the media call 'football hooliganism'...""... we should be eternally grateful that Geoff Pearson did the hard yards and embedded himself within these fan groups for so long and produced such an accessible, thoughtful and innovative book."An ethnography of English football fans is an extremely thorough ethnography of football fans, describing their motivations and behaviour. It will be of great importance to anyone interested in the behaviour of football fans and in management of football crowds.

• 1. Introduction2. Ethnography: theory, method and practice 3. The football carnival 4. Identity and expression 5. Fans or hooligans? 6. Authority and social control 7. Alcohol and the effectiveness of alcohol controls 8. Attitudes to gender, sexuality, race and disability 9. The impact of technology 10. Conclusions ReferencesIndex

Geoff Pearson is Lecturer in Law at the University of Liverpool’s Management School

"...Pearson has provided us with a much needed fresh perspective on football fan research. It should become a leading text in the field. There are three excellent participation observation studies presented here, all conducted by the author, from a period of fifteen years of fieldwork.""The book is outstanding.""It is a subtle, engaging account of the interaction of fans who sometimes become involved in what the media call 'football hooliganism'...""... we should be eternally grateful that Geoff Pearson did the hard yards and embedded himself within these fan groups for so long and produced such an accessible, thoughtful and innovative book."An ethnography of English football fans is an extremely thorough ethnography of football fans, describing their motivations and behaviour. It will be of great importance to anyone interested in the behaviour of football fans and in management of football crowds.

• 1. Introduction2. Ethnography: theory, method and practice 3. The football carnival 4. Identity and expression 5. Fans or hooligans? 6. Authority and social control 7. Alcohol and the effectiveness of alcohol controls 8. Attitudes to gender, sexuality, race and disability 9. The impact of technology 10. Conclusions ReferencesIndex