ABSTRACT
Atmospheres are powerful forces that tie consumption contexts together (Biehl-Missal and Saren 2012). We immediately feel a ‘cozy café’ (Linnet 2013), a nightclub where everyone is ‘in sync’ (Goulding et al. 2009) and sports events that ‘buzz’ with an energy, carrying us along in the heat of the moment (Edensor 2014). Atmospheres affect our bodies and alter our behaviour, yet, despite this, atmospheres are often overlooked by our current theories, methods and styles of representing research (Askegaard and Linnet 2011;Hill et al. 2014). Addressing this gap is important as atmospheres problematise conventional understandings of human intentionality, action and responsibility (Blackman 2012). In this chapter therefore, I draw on a set of theoretical sensitivities provided by non-representational theory (Anderson and Harrison 2010;Thrift 2008) to describe how atmospheres have been experienced and managed within English football cultures.
