SHOULD FOOTBALL BE ABOLISHED? SPORT AND CONTEMPORARY NEW LEFT PHILOSOPHY

Authors

  • Aleksandar Pavlović Faculty of Sport, University Union-Nikola Tesla, Belgrade, Serbia Author
  • Aleksandar Vuletić Faculty of Sport, University Union-Nikola Tesla, Belgrade, Serbia Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58984/

Keywords:

Chantal Mouffe, Terry Eagleton, Football, Politics, New Left

Abstract

This paper analyses the role of football in the theories of contemporary leftist philosophers and cultural critics Chantal Mouffe and Terry Eagleton. Mouffe (2005) takes an affirmative view of sport and football-fans culture, albeit as a metaphor to her demand for a passionate politics. Namely, she opposes current post-political belief in democratic consensus and advocates ‘agonistic’ political sphere where participants express their political beliefs with energy, collective spirit and loyalty similar to the football fans. In contrast, Terry Eagleton (2010) recently proclaimed football to be the friend of capitalism, and even demanded the game to be abolished altogether, as it cements the existing political order and prevents any social change. It is argued that the aforementioned approaches announce the re-entrance of football and sport in general in the mainstream philosophical debates but, even more so, testify to the diversity and, to some extent, the confusion of the New Left nowadays.

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References

Crowder, George, Chantal Mouffe’s Agonistic Democracy, Refereed paper presented to the Australasian Political Studies Association conference, University of Newcastle, 25-27 September 2006 (available at: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/Resources/Schools/Economics%20Politics%20and%20Tourism/ APSA%202006/POLSOCTHEORY/Crowder,%20George.pdf, page accessed on October 5, 2013)

Eagleton, Terry, ‘Football: a dear friend to capitalism’, The Guardian, June 15, 2010, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jun/15/football-socialism-crack-cocaine-people, (page accessed on October 5, 2013)

Engel, Antke, Debate rather than Dialogue, in: Chantal Mouffe: On the Political, in: redescriptions. Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual History, 10, 2006: 196-202.

Fukuyama, Francis, 1989, ‘The End of History?’, The National Interest, Summer 1989.

Mouffe, Chantal, Politics and Passions, Centre for the Study of Democracy: University of Westminster, 2002. On the Political, London: Routledge, 2005.

Schmitt, Karl, The Concept of the Political, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Tally, Robert T. Jr., “The Agony of the Political.” Postmodern Culture17.2 (2007).

Zirin, Dave, ‘Football isn’t just about capitalism’, The Guardian, June 21, 2010. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jun/21/football-terry-eagleton-sport

(page accessed on October 5, 2013)

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Published

2014-12-31

How to Cite

Pavlović, A., & Vuletić, A. (2014). SHOULD FOOTBALL BE ABOLISHED? SPORT AND CONTEMPORARY NEW LEFT PHILOSOPHY. SPORT, MEDIA AND BUSINESS, 1(1), 46-50. https://doi.org/10.58984/

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