A study of the relationship between the painter’s intention and the spectator’s interpretation: employing methods of social inquiry within the image-field of football culture

From club-sponsored outreach initiatives to organisations that bring together a team’s supporters, football clubs play a vital role in building and sustaining communities. This volume explores the significance and value of such activities, as well as the critical issues they raise. Essays examine the dynamic relationship between football clubs and the range of communities that develop around them from the multi-disciplinary vantage points of academic researchers, practitioners and fans. The collection highlights key themes such as equality and diversity in the game, nationalism(s) and shifting supporter identities, social media and technologically-motivated transformation, impacts of globalisation and modernisation of the game, the iconography of football culture, and the politics and agendas that drive community football.