Football as a Reflection of Modern Society’s Conflicts and a Way of Creating Societal Ties in Enduring Enmity Context

Abstract

This paper proposal, which emanates from a PhD research finished by the author in 2013, is attempting to present a comparative study of different realities in the world to conclude that football’s success resides in its ability to create and recreate national belongings and that it is capable to lead to the broadening of national understanding between confronted ethnic groups or countries. That is to say, that football serves on the one hand to reflect mimetic conflicts between countries; however, on the other hand it serves to reconcile fragmented societies around a common sense of belonging. Which is apparently a football incongruity; actually it is a reflection of the inherent conflict and contradictions of modern societies. In fact, firstly the sport event is used in this study as a research object to conclude its importance in order to develop inner understanding between different confronted groups in the world. Secondly, it is considered, as well, as a scientific tool to analyze current human organizations and the complex societal ties which are generated there. A comparative methodology comprising different realities allows the researcher to obtain a scientific knowledge about the scope of the football phenomenon concerning nation building and reconciling processes.   

Keywords

• Football, mimetic conflict, wars, rapprochement

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