Performing Argentine Football Fandom: Stadium Cheering, Rituals and Collective Identity. Sports passion from a cultural and economic perspective

This thesis examines Argentine football fandom as a collective performance, analysing stadium cheering through the lenses of the performing arts, sociology and cultural economics. It explores the extent to which chants, rituals and corporeal practices can be regarded as performances, fostering cultural, symbolic and economic value. The theoretical framework draws on Schechner and Turner, who describe performance as a ritual and social phenomenon beyond theatre. Football stadiums are thus framed as ritual spaces, and supporters as an active, co-participating audience. Through Giulianotti, the thesis also engages with the sociology of sport to define how identity and belonging are constructed within fandom. The study then shifts to Argentina, where Alabarces and Archetti read football as a producer of national identity. The hinchadas carry out structured ritual performances, revealing the correlation between football, music, festivity and dance. The final section examines the symbolic and economic dimensions of fandom through Bourdieu, Hochschild, Giulianotti and Illouz. The case studies of Boca Juniors and River Plate show how authenticity, rivalry and commercialisation coexist within the symbolic repertoire of the Superclásico, one of the most intense derbies in world football.