TY - JOUR
T1 - The experience of defeat
T2 - applying Goffman to examine a football tournament for socially excluded homeless individuals
AU - Segura M Trejo, Fernando
AU - Attali, Michaël
AU - Magee, Jonathan
PY - 2017/8
Y1 - 2017/8
N2 - The use of football programs as a vehicle for social change has increased exponentially in recent decades. This article utilizes Goffman’s sociology as a framework to approach the Homeless World Cup (HWC). Firstly, we examine how the participants interviewed refer to their journeys and how, throughout the HWC’s preparation, they were able to positively reconfigure their self-presentation. Secondly, we consider the frame of repeated defeats for participants whose expectations of success within this tournament were not fulfilled, reinforcing previously held feelings of stigma. Thirdly, the symbolic distance between winning and losing teams is discussed. Finally, we propose some reflections about the tournament’s format in order to remove, or at least reduce, negative experiences.
AB - The use of football programs as a vehicle for social change has increased exponentially in recent decades. This article utilizes Goffman’s sociology as a framework to approach the Homeless World Cup (HWC). Firstly, we examine how the participants interviewed refer to their journeys and how, throughout the HWC’s preparation, they were able to positively reconfigure their self-presentation. Secondly, we consider the frame of repeated defeats for participants whose expectations of success within this tournament were not fulfilled, reinforcing previously held feelings of stigma. Thirdly, the symbolic distance between winning and losing teams is discussed. Finally, we propose some reflections about the tournament’s format in order to remove, or at least reduce, negative experiences.
KW - defeat
KW - football
KW - Goffman
KW - homelessness
KW - self-presentation
KW - stigma
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85022325346&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1012690215611084
DO - 10.1177/1012690215611084
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85022325346
SN - 1012-6902
VL - 52
SP - 615
EP - 630
JO - International Review for the Sociology of Sport
JF - International Review for the Sociology of Sport
IS - 5
ER -