The Theatrics of Hate: Using Art-Based Methods to Understand Hate Crime and Football Fandom

Football fan cultures encompass expressions of love and joy, yet they can also be deeply hateful. In this paper, we argue that an arts-based method – specifically theatre-based research techniques - was useful in exploring hate crime with fans of the game. As both victims and perpetrators, we suggest workshop participants found the novelty of the approach conducive to sharing experiential knowledge relevant to tackling hate in the game. As well as providing a reflexive analysis of the ethics and approach that underpinned the research, we share artistic representations to capture how hate manifested amongst differently positioned fans of the game.