Football, crowds and cultures

Ian Warren's research into sports crowd culture and management takes us in new directions. First, he is concerned with the audience as an entity in context; a situational and comparative approach indicates a variety of behaviours dependant upon a complex interplay linking the nature of the sport, the norms of the society, and the characteristics of the fans. Second, Warren is concerned with the sports crowd in its fullest sense; in other words, he is as much interested in why Australian rules football has no tradition of segregation as with why English football has developed a culture of 'ends' and formal separation of rival fans. Third, Warren broadens the scholarly debate to take much greater account of the duties and responsibilities of stadium operators, state police, and private police in managing the environment of the sporting arena safely and responsibly.