Full Description
This book explores social and political issues and trends emerging around the UEFA European Football Championships. It presents a contemporary sociology of the European Championships which, despite its significance as a mega-event, has been largely overshadowed by the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup in existing literature.
At a time when both sport mega-events and Europe are undergoing dramatic transformations, this book explores a range of case studies and important topics such as changing consumption patterns, new types of sport media, social media, environmental policies and emergency politics, public opposition and co-hosting. It also situates the European Championships within wider European projects and discourses of European identities, integration and enlargement. Drawing on data from recent and historical European Championships, and looking ahead to the next tournament in Germany in 2024, this book serves to open up new debates within the sociology of sport and the study of mega-events.
It is a timely and ground-breaking text which will resonate with students, academics and readers who are interested in football, the sociology of sport, megaevents, digital sociology, European politics and culture or sports business.
Contents
1 Introduction: the European festival
2 The rise of the Euros in a political, sociological and historical context
3 Old media in new media spaces: Twitter
4 YouTube as an alternative to TV: remediating the spectacle
5 The politics of co-bidding and hosting: Nordic alliances and football's 'coming home' (again)?
6 Mega-crises and mega-events: anticipated, unexpected and latent threats
7 Conclusion: towards a sociology of the Euros
