Policing football in Sweden: a Participant Action Research project conducted with the football community

Williams, Neil Simon

Abstract

This PhD thesis was written as part of a programme of research conducted by the Enable Project into the policing of domestic football events in Sweden. Between 2014 and 2016 Enable had conducted a series of Participant Action Research based observations; Enable had then made a series of recommendations for the Swedish Police to implement in order to reduce the potentiality for conflict with and between supporter groups. This thesis was then designed to monitor and analyse the impact of the three main changes. Specifically, that 2016 report had suggested that the police focus on three key issues. Firstly, they needed to place a greater emphasis on facilitation. Secondly, they should address the inconsistencies in the national approach to crowd management. And finally, it was concluded that the police would benefit from separating the spotter and dialogue roles. Three data collection methods were employed. The first of which involved four large scale observations conducted in 2017. This involved teams of around 15 people observing a football match day operation to create a triangulated consensual account of the day’s events. This data was thematically analysed and used to create thematic maps. The second method included four online qualitative surveys to run alongside those observations. In total 1433 responses were received and then analysed using a content analysis approach. The third method was an interview study done with 20 police officers and 11 football supporters conducted over the course of the 2018 season. This data was used to perform a multi-perspective thematic analysis. Analysis of all the data collected in this thesis showed that a greater police emphasis on facilitation was linked to a reduced potentiality for conflict and thus greatly enhanced their ability to manage the crowd. It was thus concluded that, by placing an equal emphasis on facilitating the lawful intentions of the crowd as they do on controlling the unlawful intentions of it, the police can overcome the ‘legacy of illegitimacy’ which inhibits their ability to manage crowds without the use of excessive force.

Citation

Williams, N. S. (2023). Policing football in Sweden: a Participant Action Research project conducted with the football community. (Thesis). Keele University

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Jul 11, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 11, 2023
• Award Date: 2023-06