ABSTRACT
Bearing in mind the few points which have been made so far, it is clear that an examination of the rules within a sub-culture such as exists on the football terraces must proceed within the context of an adequate discovery procedure which enables the requirements imposed by the concept of rule to be satisfied. In effect, this means that a good deal of groundwork is called for before one can begin to ask the kind of question which yields directly the tacit meanings and conventions. One cannot ask a question such as, ‘What should one do?’ before one has knowledge of language use and the conceptual equipment to make sense of the answer. Consider this short transcript from a tape-recorded interview: Questioner: What do you do when you put the boot in? Fan A: You kicks em in the head don’t you?…Strong boots with metal
toe-caps on and that. Questioner: And what happens then?
