The structure of football can also be conceived as a form of ecosystem, or even a social world, constructed through a network of individuals, within a division of labour, that interact under a set of specific conventions. In this commentary we describe that socially constructed world-Football World. The nature of this structural world makes network theory an appealing framework to explore processes of the football ecosystem during COVID-19. While we focus on the English Premier League, notably this league is embedded within a European and international marketplace it offers relevance for the broader global football ecosystem. We proceed to explore this dynamic Football World by considering how the different collective forms-specifically fans, players and clubs-have been affected by COVID-19. We comment on the potential implications for the connective fabric of the broader network and what these observations mean for potential future research.
Following advances in information technology and the rise of social media, prosumptiona model of simultaneous production and consumption of the commodityhas become a significant focus in many industries and for academic study. Prosumption represents a new message creation and delivery paradigm, where anyone can seamlessly shift from consumer to contributor, to creator. Central to this is the idea of creating 'use-value' and re-orientating 'exchange value'. Perhaps an overlooked facet, but one deeply engrained in its manifestation is that prosumption is inherently relational, involving microinteraction between consumer and producer. The recent global COVID-19 pandemic, it too being relational in its transmission, has had a paralysing effect on global leisure activities with households and sports organisations experiencing some form of state-enforced residential lockdown. Using social network analysis, this commentary examines the network structure of a prosumed leisure activity during societal lockdown and its implications for the leisure industries.
COVID-19 has sent a shockwave into society and sport. As result of this, sport and football resuming without spectators-fans or supporters, has brought a number of financial issues that has threatened the sustainability and future of many clubs. This commentary unpicks what has happened and some of the tensions, decision-making and consequences surrounding the return of spectators. The commentary presents the case that spectators are key to the survival of football clubs and that the United Kingdom Government must reverse their decision to not let spectators return. Now more than ever, these words hold substance, meaning and truly matter to clubs and their networked communities, "Football without fans is nothing".
Purpose: Value within prosumption systems such as Twitter is underexplored. We adopt an economic sociology perspective to measure prosumption value, using the #ProjectRestart campaign as football looked to resume following COVID-19. Design: We use social network analysis to analyse 21,000 tweets involving 10,810 Twitter users using the #ProjectRestart hashtag. Specifically, we apply network theory measures, community clustering, betweenness, domain prestige and proximity prestige to explore how prosumption value can be measured. Findings: Our empirical findings demonstrate how value can be perceived within prosumption systems. Specifically, it shows how developing cohesive prosumer networks is vital in exploiting prosumer capital, creating value in the virtual space, which is imperative in negotiating through times of uncertainty, like COVID-19. Practical Implications: The practical implications encourage the industry to think of value in the virtual space differently, embedding this into future management strategies.Research Contribution: This research provides a theoretical contribution of prosumer value, blending prosumption and economic sociology theories. Empirically, it demonstrates how actors in the football world used prosumer networks to create value during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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