May 05, 2006

Not For Sale?: The destruction and reformation of football communities

4 May 2006

A leading expert in popular culture will discuss the impact of the Glazer take-over of Manchester United FC at guest lecture in the University's Jordanstown campus this week.

Dr Adam Brown, a Senior Research Fellow at the Manchester Institute for Popular Culture at Manchester Metropolitan University, will present: 'Not For Sale?: The destruction and reformation of football communities in the Glazer take-over of Manchester United', on Friday 05 May at 11am in lecture theatre 15G13.

This lecture will explore the historical background, fan culture and scope of the oppositional stance taken by many Manchester United fans to the corporate takeover of their club by the US-based Glazer family and will situate the take-over battle within a number of trends, namely:

- The weakening of regulatory regimes
- The reassertion of locality among United's Mancunian fan base
- The formations of fan groups and their radicalisation at Manchester United

The lecture will conclude with some comments about the establishment of a new football club by disaffected and disillusioned United fans in Manchester - FC United of Manchester - and how this relates to notions of fan
community.

Dr Brown currently leads a major research project - Football and its Communities for the UK Football Foundation - and is a regional director of the Positive Futures case study research for the UK Home Office.

He also leads new research on fishing and social exclusion for the UK government and was formerly a prominent member of the UK Government's Football Task Force.

He is on the board of FC United of Manchester and is co-author of Not For Sale; editor of Fanatics! (Routledge 1998); and author of numerous articles relating to football, sport and community, sports policy, and cultural industries.

Posted by ulrich at 02:26 AM | Comments (0)