Having the Balls: Reflections on Doing Gendered Research with Football Hooligans

Poulton, E.

Abstract

The chapter identifies the methodological challenges (re)negotiated and managed as a female academic researching the hyper-masculine subculture of ‘football hooliganism’. It provides some methodological strategies and field tips that researchers may find useful to help navigate some of the complicated gender and power issues that can arise during the research. Doing gendered research (especially with deviant subcultures) can sometimes require the researcher to demonstrate that they have the metaphorical ‘balls’ in terms of handling particular situations and power relations – including sometimes feeling ‘powerless’ – and the emotional labour this demands.

Citation

Poulton, E. (2014). Having the Balls: Reflections on Doing Gendered Research with Football Hooligans. In K. Lumsden, & A. Winter (Eds.), Reflexivity in criminological research : experiences with the powerful and powerless (77-89). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137379405.0011

• Online Publication Date: Oct 1, 2014
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jul 14, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 1, 2017
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Pages: 77-89
• Book Title: Reflexivity in criminological research : experiences with the powerful and powerless.
• Chapter Number: 6
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137379405.0011
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1648781