Course Syllabus
The Beautiful Game:Soccer in Contemporary Society and Culture |
| Semester & Location: |
Spring 2021 - DIS Copenhagen |
| Type & Credits: |
Elective Course - 3 credits |
| Major Disciplines: |
Media Studies, Sociology, History |
| Prerequisite(s): |
None |
| Faculty Member: |
Andreas Brøgger - abr@dis.dk |
| Program Coordinator: |
Sanne Rasmussen - sra@dis.dk |
| Time & Place: |
Wednesdays 19:00-20:20 Central European Time via Zoom |
Course Description
In recent decades soccer has become a highly profitable and globalized cultural phenomenon. What lies behind the sport’s ability to attract immense crowds, or its seemingly magical penetration of the everyday life of the fan, instilling feelings of compassion, ecstacy, hate, and depression? What propelled the sport from an elite phenomenon in English public schools in the 1800s to a global form of mass entertainment in the 1900s? What makes soccer so appealing to so many, its ritualized global spectacles captivating billions of fans worldwide today?
If soccer is more important than life and death, as one manager has famously claimed, how can we begin to understand the sport in all its complexity, with historical ties to local communities, national, and postcolonial identities? How have questions of class, religion, race, and gender been negotiated in soccer throughout history?
In this course we will look at soccer through sociological and historical lenses as a reflection of society, both beautiful and ugly. We will also attempt to understand the particular dynamics of the game through theories of games and play which provide clues to why we play, why we watch, and the role of play in culture in general.
In recent years, the popularity of soccer has been reflected in an increasing academic interest in the sport from within disciplines such as history, sociology, media studies, art history, psychology, business, and health sciences. These studies provide relevant perspectives on the sport, complementing countless news stories and (auto)biographies of players and coaches, written or co-authored by journalists.
Alongside course readings, relevant works by artists and filmmakers will be included to see how these may contribute to our understanding of the sport.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course you will be able to:
- understand how soccer has been shaped throughout history by a variety of cultural, political, and economic forces
- discuss the mutual influence of soccer and contemporary society
- analyze how soccer has been reflected in media and the visual arts throughout its history
- understand the basic qualities of play and games in human interaction
- perceive the dynamics of the game (rules, tactics, strategy, innovation, tradition)
Approach to Teaching
This course is for everyone, not only fans. You are not required to possess a knowledge of soccer to take this course, but I expect you to be eager to learn why soccer has attracted so much attention worldwide. This course is for you if you are curious to see what we may find out about society, ourselves, and others, by studying this particular phenomenon.
Our main methods will be the combined lenses of sociology, history, and cultural studies, but you are welcome regardless of academic background. We will take the opportunity to learn from all students' perspectives from various disciplines as we tackle the course topics together in a collective learning experience. Along the way we may engage in creative experiments. Visual art and film will be introduced to open up discussions. If possible, field studies will take us out of the classroom to study soccer and its cultural imprint in various contexts.
Instructor
Andreas Brøgger, Program Director of European Humanities at DIS.
MA in Modern Culture Studies, University of Copenhagen. Executive Master of Public Governance, Copenhagen Business School. Visiting Scholar, Columbia University 1999-2000, and Otis College of Art and Design 2001. Lecturer, University of Copenhagen 2002-2005. Previously Curator and Director of Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center 2009-2018 where he curated the exhibition KICK OFF – Contemporary Art and Football, among many others. With DIS since 2018.
Readings
The following titles are examples of readings, not a complete list. All required and recommended readings will be posted on Canvas.
David Goldblatt, The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer, Riverhead, 2008
Richard Guilianotti, Football: A Sociology of the Global Game, Polity, 1999
Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens - A Study of the Play-Element in Culture, Martino Fine Books, 2016 (1949)
Jean Williams, A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women's Football, Berg Publishers, 2007
Gabriel Kuhn, Soccer vs. the State – Tackling Football and Radical Politics, PM Press, 2019 (2018)
Andrei Markovits, Women in American Soccer and European Football, Independently published, 2019
Christoph Biermann, Football Hackers: The Science and Art of a Data Revolution, Blink Publishing, 2019
Tony Collins, How Football Began – A Global History of How the World's Football Codes Were Born, Routledge, 2019
Daniel Haxall (ed.), Picturing the Beautiful Game, Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2018
Ted Richards, Soccer and Philosophy, Open Court, 2010
Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanski, Soccernomics, 2018
Laurent Dubois, The Language of the Game: How to Understand Soccer, 2018
Works of art, literature, and film
(selected, preliminary)
Harun Farocki (DE), Deep Play, 2006
Douglas Gordon (UK) & Philippe Parrenno (F), Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, 2006
Maider Lopez (E), Football Field Sharjah, 2007
Pied la Biche (F), Refait, 2010
Floor Wesseling, Blood In, Blood Out, 2004-
Umberto Boccioni, Dynamism of a Soccer Player, 1913
L.S. Lowry, Going to the Match, 1923
Academic Regulations
Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:
DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|