Paper short abstract:

This element of the panel focuses on the role of FC Barcelona as a cultural and social institution, drawing significantly on some of the themes explored in our upcoming edited study, FC Barcelona: History, Politics and Identity, to be published by Routledge in 2024.

Paper long abstract:

This element of the panel focuses on the role of FC Barcelona as a cultural and social institution, drawing significantly on some of the themes explored in our upcoming edited study, FC Barcelona: History, Politics and Identity, to be published by Routledge in 2024.

We will concentrate on three key themes, which we believe to be commensurate with the wider themes and issues disseminated in the EASA conference. Firstly, we examine the historic traditions of FC Barcelona as an expression of the core political and cultural values in a stateless Catalan society. These values have existed, in various manifestations, since the foundation of the club in 1899, and have been an articulation of civil society of the city of Barcelona and the region of Catalonia since then.

Secondly, we consider the perspectives of the club during the Franco dictatorship (1939- 1975) and in the subsequent transition to democracy in the late 1970s. How did FC Barcelona function as a representation of suppressed national sentiment during the period, and how did it feature in the transition to the Spain of the regions in the 1970s and 1980s? Finally, we evaluate the club as part of a stable contemporary democracy: Where does the club sit in the development of the independence and separatist debate? How does sport, and football act as a catalyst for the promotion of wider societal objectives?

The presentation concludes by asking key questions pertaining to the relationship between FC Barcelona and Catalan identity. Is it safe containment allied to slick marketing, or a reference point for aspirational aims in a stateless nation?