ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the ecosystem of football supporter cultures in Brazil, adopting a cultural and historical perspective to understand the transformations experienced by fan groups in the country. Unlike other approaches to supporters and fan groups that tend to adopt a linear perspective, arguing that traditional practices are replaced with new ways of supporting throughout history, I approach this process from Canclini’s (1995) work and the idea that in Latin America the process of cultural modernisation often operates by juxtaposing modern and traditional practices. I consider in this analysis five formations still existent in contemporary Brazil: charangas (from the 1940s), organised fans (from the 1960s), new supporting movements (2000s), online communities (from the 1990s) and free torcidas (2010s). The analysis of this trajectory seeks not to isolate these different formations, showing indeed how the contemporary scene is characterised by multiple temporalities. The ecosystem of football supporter cultures in Brazil is today much more fragmented and complex than a few decades ago, which requires a theoretical framework capable of addressing such articulations over history.
