Paper short abstract:

Hooligans operate on the fringes or outside of legal norms. I will describe the ethical dilemmas of field research in this terrain. I focus on the criminalization itself, understanding it as a key to understanding the self-image of hooligans as "outlaws" and the transformations of this subculture.

Paper long abstract:

Hooligans systematically operate on the fringes or outside of legal norms, and while their activities were tolerated for a long time, they have been targeted by anti-terrorism measures in Western Europe since the 2000s. In Germany, organized hooligans can be classified as a criminal organization, and their links to the Far Right also make them the target of measures directed against right-wing extremism. Ethnographic research on hooliganism therefore operates in a legally difficult terrain, and it is almost impossible not to observe criminal offenses in the process. This inevitably raises the question of positioning oneself in the field. On the one hand, some hooligan groups are among the violent protagonists of the current shift to the right; on the other hand, they are also stigmatized and criminalized in problematic ways, similar to other organized soccer fans. In my presentation, I will describe the ethical dilemmas and methodological difficulties of field research in this terrain, which resemble a constant balancing act. In doing so, I focus on the criminalization itself, understanding it as a key to understanding the self-image of hooligans as "outlaws" and the recent transformations of this subculture.