Sport, Ethics and Philosophy

Sport and Other Fandoms

Twenty-first-century philosophy of sport has seen an explosion of writing on watching sport. While this has resulted in important contributions on a formidable range of topics, there has not been a focused consideration of how sport fandom (itself heterogeneous) compares with and contrasts with other fan cultures in music, cinema, literature, and opera. This special issue aims to address that gap by treating a small set of relevant questions. The diversity of fan cultures and the relative cultural autonomy of fandoms generate questions of metaphysical, sociocultural, moral, and political significance.

 We invite submissions that critically engage with topics germane to the respective characters of sport and other fandoms, and which can stimulate further discussion.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• Is there anything unique that distinguishes sport fandom from other forms of fandom?
•        Is sport fandom more like music fandom or political allegiance?
•        Are there impressions of ‘high culture’ and ‘low culture’ fandoms in sport, in the way that we see comparable divides in the areas of music, art, and film?
•        Do fans of either sport or art forms such as music have an obligation to take the activities of women athletes or artists more seriously?
•        Can it be morally defensible for a football fan (say) to follow only the male or only the female team at their club, or for their support to be significantly imbalanced between them?
•        How should we evaluate the fan who follows a sportsperson because they find them attractive or whose partisanship is originally incited on that ground? Is this sexist, inauthentic, or a lesser fandom? (This might also be applied to following teams, whom one might start to follow because one considers them the most physically attractive team or to have one especially attractive player.)      
•        Does current partisan sport fandom poison the way we engage politically, such that ‘team’ allegiance trumps commitment to justice or other moral values?
•        How should sports and other fans engage with their objects in the age of social media?
• How should we theorise acceptable audience behaviours in fan communities? (This might include explanatory questions of how audience behaviours become sub-culturally acceptable or unacceptable and the normative questions of whether the internal moralities are justified.)