Forbidden Football in Ceausescu’s Romania (Global Culture and Sport Series)

This book presents an ethnographic description and sociological interpretation of the ‘football gatherings’ that evolved out of central Romania in the late twentieth century. In the 1980's, Romanian public television did not broadcast football mega-events for economic and political reasons. In response, masses of people would leave their homes and travel into the mountains to pick-up the TV broadcast from neighbouring countries. The phenomenon grew into a social institution with a penetrating force: it produced an alternative social space and a dissident public that pointed to a form of resistance taking place through football. __Forbidden Football in Ceausescu’s Romania__ provides an insight into the everyday life under the pressure of dictatorship and, through the special patterns of sports consumption, it tells a social history through small individual stories related to football. This book presents an ethnographic description and sociological interpretation of the 'football gatherings' that evolved out of central Romania in the late twentieth century. In the 1980's, Romanian public television did not broadcast football mega-events for economic and political reasons. In response, masses of people would leave their homes and travel into the mountains to pick-up the TV broadcast from neighbouring countries. The phenomenon grew into a social institution with a penetrating force: it produced an alternative social space and a dissident public that pointed to a form of resistance taking place through football. Forbidden Football in Ceausescu's Romania provides an insight into the everyday life under the pressure of dictatorship and, through the special patterns of sports consumption, it tells a social history through small individual stories related to football.-- Provided by publisher Annotation This text presents an ethnographic description and sociological interpretation of the 'football gatherings' that evolved out of central Romania in the late twentieth century. In the 1980's, Romanian public television did not broadcast football mega-events for economic and political reasons. In response, masses of people would leave their homes and travel into the mountains to pick-up the TV broadcast from neighbouring countries. The phenomenon grew into a social institution with a penetrating force: it produced an alternative social space and a dissident public that pointed to a form of resistance taking place through football. This book provides an insight into the everyday life under the pressure of dictatorship and, through the special patterns of sports consumption, it tells a social history through small individual stories related to football Front Matter ....Pages i-x Introduction to the Ethnography and Research of Football Gatherings in Romania (László Péter)....Pages 1-17 Ciumani: The Sport Takes the Community to the Mountains (László Péter)....Pages 19-45 Bălan: Angry Men in The Night (László Péter)....Pages 47-59 Cluj: Big City Versions of the Football Gatherings (László Péter)....Pages 61-84 Southern-Transylvania—Further Faces of the Extended Phenomenon (László Péter)....Pages 85-92 The Social and Political Significance of Football Gatherings: Escape to Freedom (László Péter)....Pages 93-121 Lessons and Conclusions (László Péter)....Pages 123-129 Back Matter ....Pages 131-162