Are we different, or just crazy? The double binds of football and identity in Bilbao
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Published
01-03-2020
Mariann Vaczi
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6007-0981
Abstract
Athletic Bilbao has a unique player recruitment policy, allowing only Basque-born players or those developed at the youth academies of Basque clubs to play for the team, a policy that rejects the internationalism of contemporary globalised sport. Despite this, the club has never been relegated from the top division of Spanish football. In 2007, however, Athletic came one game away from descending to second division, which sent the fan community into an impasse of identification. Its proud exceptionalism, the philosophy that made the club a "unique case in the world" now appeared to be in conflict with first division performance, and the identity of the city was at stake. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper approaches collective identity as a Catch-22 type double bind as theorized by Bateson: an impasse that reveals not just the pleasure, but also the intense suffering identity produces in Basque soccer and society.
How to Cite
Vaczi, M. (2020). Are we different, or just crazy? The double binds of football and identity in Bilbao. Papeles De Identidad, 2020(1), papel 221. https://doi.org/10.1387/pceic.20758
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Keywords
soccer, double bind, Basque Country, identity
References
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Soriano, F. (2012). Goal: The Ball Doesn't Go In By Chance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sota, A. de la. (1932). Divagaciones que nos trae el foot-ball. Bilbao: Editorial Vasca.
Turner, V. W. (1969). The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
Ugarte, P. (2007). Filosofía e identidad. El Correo, 23 de julio de 2007. Disponible en: https://www.elcorreo.com/vizcaya/20070708/deportes/athletic/filosofia-identidad-20070708.html. Último consulta: 11/09/2019.
Urla, J. (1993). Cultural politics in an age of statistics: numbers, nations, and the making of Basque identity. American Ethnologist, 20(4), 818-43.
Urla, J. (1995). Outlaw language: creating alternative public spheres in Basque free radio. Pragmatics, 5(2), 245-61.
Walton, J. K. (2011). Sport and the Basques: constructed and contested identities, 1876-1936. Journal of Historical Sociology, 24(4), 451-471.
Žižek, S. (2006). How to Read Lacan. Nueva York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Zulaika, J. (1996). Del cromañón al carnaval: los vascos como museo antropológico. San Sebastián-Donostia: Erein.
Agiriano, J. (2007b). Una regla con excepciones. El Correo, 7 de julio de 2007. Disponible en: https://www.elcorreo.com/vizcaya/20070707/deportes/athletic/regla-excepciones-20070707.html. Última consulta: 11/01/2020.
Aquino, M. (2017). A Panther Among Lions: Iñaki Williams, Race and Basque Identity at Athletic Club de Bilbao. Sport, Identity and Nationalism in the Hispanic World, SIBA, 4, 119-136.
Baroja, C. J. (2009). The Basques. Reno, NV: Center for Basque Studies.
Capetillo, J. A. P. (2012). Sí, somos distintos. El Correo, 26 de septiembre de 2012. Disponible en: www.canalathletic.com/noticias/2012-09-26/somos-distintos-20120926.html. Última consulta: 16/10/2014.
Carlos Castillo, J. (2007). Play fresh, play local: the case of Athletic de Bilbao. Sport in Society, 10(4), 680-697.
Conversi, D. (1997). The Basques, the Catalans, and Spain: Alternative Routes to Nationalist Mobilization. Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press.
Copjec, J. (2004). Imagine There's No Woman: Ethics and sublimation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gallop, R. (1970). The Book of the Basques. Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press.
Giulianotti, R. (1999). Football: A Sociology of the Global Game. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Greenwood, D. (1977). Continuity in change: Spanish Basque ethnicity as a historical process. En J. E. Milton (Ed.). Ethnic Conflicts in the Western World (pp. 81-103). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Groves, M. (2011). Resisting the globalization, standardization and rationalization of football: my journey to Bilbao. Soccer & Society, 12(2), 265-278.
Halliwell, M. (2004). Images of Idiocy: The Idiot Figure in Modern Fiction and Film. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.
Heiberg, M. (1980). Basques, anti-basques and the moral community. En R. Grillo (Ed.).'Nation' and 'State' in Europe (pp. 45–60). Nueva York: Academic Press.
Heller, J. (1961). Catch-22. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Hobsbawm, E., y Ranger, T. O. (1992). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Humboldt, W. (1821). Prüfung der Untersuchungen über die Urbewohner Hispaniens vermittelst der vaskischen Sprache. Berlín: Bei Ferdinand Dümmler.
Kasmir, S. (2002). "More Basque than you!" Class, youth and identity in an industrial Basque town. Global Studies in Culture and Power, 9, 39–69.
Krichko, K. (2019) "Inaki Williams blazes a trail at Spain's historic Athletic Club: "I have in my blood what it means to be Basque". ESPN, 21 de Agosto 2019. Disponible en: https://www.espn.com/soccer/spanish-primera-division/story/3912114/inaki-williams-blazes-a-trail-at-spains-historic-athletic-club----i-have-in-my-blood-what-it-means-to-be-basque. Último consulta: 11/11/2019.
Laplanche, J., y Pontalis, J. B. (1986). Fantasy and the origins of sexuality. En V. Burgin, J. Donald y C. Kaplan (Eds.). Formations of Fantasy (pp. 5-34). Nueva York: Methuen.
MacClancy, J. (1996). Nationalism at play: the Basques of Vizcaya and Athletic Bilbao. Oxford: Berg Publisher Ltd.
MacClancy, J. (1993) Biological Basques, sociologically speaking. En M. Chapan (Ed.). Social and Biological Aspects of Ethnicity (pp. 92–129). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Maia, J. (2013). "Escritor, bertsolari gipuzkoano y athleticzale". En E. Rodrigalvarez (Ed.). Historias de San Mamés (pp. 177-179). Bilbao: Athletic Club.
O'Brien, J. (2014). "Shades of Basqueness": Football, politics and ethnicity in the Basque Country. En K. Dashper, T. Fletcher y N. Mccullough (Eds). Sports Events, Society and Culture (pp. 160-173). London: Routledge.
Ortiz-Osés, A., y Mayr, F. K. (1980). El matriarcalismo vasco: reinterpretación de la cultura vasca. Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto.
Payne, S. G. (1975). Basque Nationalism. Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press.
Rivas, J. (2019) Iñaki Williams: "A los 12 años llegué un día a casa y no había para comer". El País, 16 de agosto 2019. Disponible en: https://elpais.com/deportes/2019/08/15/actualidad/1565882193_077676.html. Último consulta: 11/09/2019.
Salaburu, P. (2007). ¿La elección del central o la elección central? El Correo, 11 de julio de 2007.
Soriano, F. (2012). Goal: The Ball Doesn't Go In By Chance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sota, A. de la. (1932). Divagaciones que nos trae el foot-ball. Bilbao: Editorial Vasca.
Turner, V. W. (1969). The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
Ugarte, P. (2007). Filosofía e identidad. El Correo, 23 de julio de 2007. Disponible en: https://www.elcorreo.com/vizcaya/20070708/deportes/athletic/filosofia-identidad-20070708.html. Último consulta: 11/09/2019.
Urla, J. (1993). Cultural politics in an age of statistics: numbers, nations, and the making of Basque identity. American Ethnologist, 20(4), 818-43.
Urla, J. (1995). Outlaw language: creating alternative public spheres in Basque free radio. Pragmatics, 5(2), 245-61.
Walton, J. K. (2011). Sport and the Basques: constructed and contested identities, 1876-1936. Journal of Historical Sociology, 24(4), 451-471.
Žižek, S. (2006). How to Read Lacan. Nueva York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Zulaika, J. (1996). Del cromañón al carnaval: los vascos como museo antropológico. San Sebastián-Donostia: Erein.
Section
Single Topic Issue. Sport and National Identity
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