Conflitto e Violenza. Il caso dei gruppi ultras del Bologna calcio

Why take an interest in a football stadium terrace or curva? First of all, since it has become a mass activity, football has certainly been one of the most represented sports in western literature and cinematography. Not only has it been the topic of a romantic, epic and popular literature style translated in several languages, but also food for thought for philosophers and poets. Football has been and still is a great metaphor used to write on our contemporary society and, at the same time, a popular “topic of conversation” used by pubs’ patrons to while away time during boring afternoons and evenings; whether it is being discussed in a working-class neighbourhood bar or in the living room of a gentrified historical centre house, football has always played the role of a cultural glue between “high” and “low” culture. So what could be more anthropological than transforming a pub discussion or a drawing room philosophical debate into a “scientific” subject matter? This is also the reason why football has been regarded by some ethnologists as a “rite”. Others, mostly sociologists, have realized that in studying it there is the opportunity, perhaps the very last one, to write on the surviving conflicting nature of our Western and European culture, seemingly pacified yet still fraught with bellicose instincts.