Books by Max Jack
Oxford University Press, 2024
Insurgent Fandom offers a behind-the-scenes look at a transnational subculture known to few--ultr... more Insurgent Fandom offers a behind-the-scenes look at a transnational subculture known to few--ultra. As the most dedicated soccer fans, ultras support their team through collective singing, jumping, flag-waving, and lighting marine flares. While some characterize ultras as hooligans, author Max Jack argues that ultras' performative style of support is in part a protest informed by the ultras' constant friction with the state, the mainstream media, and the commercial priorities of sports' governing bodies. Because of this conflict with authority, fandom for ultras takes on a collective social life in which the game on the field often becomes a secondary concern. With political implications extending past the realm of sports, ultras have even become key actors in some of the most significant mass protests of the 21st century-including those in Cairo (2011), Istanbul (2013), and Kiev (2013). Insurgent Fandom embraces this politic of dissent at the heart of crowd action and casts a light on stadia as a breeding ground for alternative social and political possibilities.
Journal Articles by Max Jack
TDR, 2022
For a group of antifascist fans who support Eis Hockey Club Dynamo Berlin, street protest and ice... more For a group of antifascist fans who support Eis Hockey Club Dynamo Berlin, street protest and ice hockey games are both sites of left-wing political intervention. Despite the team’s reputation in Germany as “The Nazi Club,” the group aims to cultivate politically minded crowd action and uplift the atmosphere in the arena in hopes of ridding Germany of representations of its authoritarian past.
Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture, 2022
Through an examination of four contrasting moments of public intervention, we investigate the son... more Through an examination of four contrasting moments of public intervention, we investigate the sonic and cultural implications of "making a scene"—a style of social engagement that draws attention and exceeds expectations of the normative social functions of a particular space. Capturing attention through expressive inflections of difference, making a scene momentarily flips the social logics of a place, revealing public space as a sight of contestation characterized by the unequal flow and uneven habitability of different bodies and voices.
Ethnomusicology, 2021
Exploring the role of atmosphere in the context of soccer fandom, I examine hard-core fans called... more Exploring the role of atmosphere in the context of soccer fandom, I examine hard-core fans called "ultras" at Football Club Union Berlin. In response to the ultras' coordination of crowd performativity in the stadium, an assemblage of competing governing apparatuses has intervened with an interest in alleviating risk and potentially inflammatory dispositions of the fans. In contrast to the text-based rational-critical discourse idealized as characteristic of the public sphere (Warner 2002), I argue that atmosphere is an affective-discursive realm through which ultras negotiate subjectivity, which is perceived as deviant because it deconstructs individualism, interiority, and reason as assumed traits of liberal democratic citizenship.
Book Chapters by Max Jack
Football and Popular Culture: Singing Out from the Stands, 2021
Filling the normally quiet regional train with loud conversation and cigarette smoke, the ultras-... more Filling the normally quiet regional train with loud conversation and cigarette smoke, the ultras-hardcore fans of FC Saint Pauli-disrupt the normally quiet ride from Hamburg to the small town of Rathenow in East Germany. Placing stickers over the cameras built into the train carriage, there is purposeful care amongst the ultras to avoid being watched. Upon arrival, the train doors open and several hundred supporters with open bottles of beer walk out, ready for the team's German Cup game against lower-division side FSV Optik Rathenow. As the crowd exits through a tunnel that leads toward the street, riot police are waiting. One policeman begins lming the fans as the unit follows the crowd down the road. Chants erupt sporadically as the crowd moves down the road toward the stadium. Riot police in vans park outside the ground while others stand around in groups with their helmets in their hands. Hanging out on the dirt road outside the stadium, many of the fans drink and chat while ignoring the line of police vans that are trying to get through. Out of frustration and impatience, an of cer drives his van forward and bumps several fans resolutely standing in the way. Fans spring to their defence, open the unlocked van door, and grab the of cer by the jacket. After pulling him out of the van halfway, they shove him back in and slam the door. Glass beer bottles y through the air and hit the van, spraying beer into the open window. After we enter the stadium, the ultras sing for the entirety of the match. The police, looking more relaxed, watch the game and chat with one another now that the fans are safely within the caged con nes of the visitor section of the stadium. After a win for Saint Pauli, tensions escalate on the trip home. As the crowd sings and moves along the platform toward the idling train, one supporter veers toward the cops. With arms outraised, he shoves his face within an inch of a policeman's who remains in control and does not move-save for a look of disgust. On the second leg of the journey, riot police enter the train. Asking supporters to move out of the stairwell, the police are met with no acknowledgement as chatting amongst the fans continues. Words are exchanged, and suddenly, a policeman begins viciously punching a fan. Supporters ght back and the brawl begins to bottleneck up the stairs of the two-tiered train car. Riot
Papers by Max Jack
Dissertation, 2019
This dissertation examines the global proliferation of the ultra movement, a participatory style ... more This dissertation examines the global proliferation of the ultra movement, a participatory style of sports fandom that entails collective continual singing, jumping, flag-waving, and the illegal lighting of marine flares on the streets and in stadiums. Having spread across six continents, ultra is seen by scholars (Gabler 2013) and many of its participants as a social movement that champions the continuation of traditional, spectator-based fandoms, which revolve around consistent attendance and crowd participation in contrast to TV viewership. The contrast between ultra and other mass political movements is that its social life is highly critical of the consumptive and individualistic aspects of neoliberal citizenship, but not necessarily married to the debates and issues of institutionalized politics. Based on over two years of cumulative field research in Ireland and Germany with the ultra groups of three clubs (Shamrock Rovers FC, FC Union Berlin, and Eis Hockey Club Dynamo Berlin), I find ultras’ performative style of support in the stadium to be a form of social commentary and protest that is based in part on their friction with the state, the mainstream media, and the commercial priorities of sports’ governing bodies. A look into the ultra movement provides a space in which to examine how broader structures of power attempt to suppress groups that deviate from dominant idealizations of the liberal democratic subject.
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Books by Max Jack
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Papers by Max Jack