Appartenenza collettiva e mobilitazione del tifo in Inghilterra tra anni ’80 e ’90: il Charlton Athletic

The phenomenon of ‘fan activism’ seems to be closely linked to the dynamics which have progressively and significantly transformed football and the ways in which it is consumed. The English dimension, in the period which runs from the second half of the 1980s through the 1990s, offers a key case study. Part of a work in progress, which will look at the various manifestations of an independent approach to fandom in England in the period concerned, this article takes as its key source The Voice of the Valley, the independent fanzine of Charlton Athletic. The article concentrates on this club, and proposes some initial hypotheses on the various forms of mobilization of the supporters, which were a response to a modernisation process frequently interpreted as a negative shift, deforming traditions, identity and a sense of collective belonging.