Papers by Kieran E . James
Journal of Cultural Geography, 2025
In this article, I reflect on my three years working as a lecturer in the Fiji Islands and conduc... more In this article, I reflect on my three years working as a lecturer in the Fiji Islands and conducting ethnography on soccer history at the same time. With this period in my life fading in my memory since it took place a decade ago, I then reflect on postethnography, including short visits back to Fiji in 2017 and 2019. I recall various stories from my time in Fiji (2013-15) and then from my later two trips. I compare and contrast the time when I was fully committed to living and working in the island nation, integrating myself into the society, and blessing others through my research and charity (for want of a better word), and my time back on short visits when I had been "relegated" in my own and others' minds to "just a tourist". I explore the guilt, sense of loss and sense of disorientation on meeting old research participants now that my life had "moved on" (as had theirs), and we were no longer sharing life experiences.
Histories, 2025
This article reports the findings of an ethnographic and historical study into an ultras group ca... more This article reports the findings of an ethnographic and historical study into an ultras group called Melbourne Croatia Fans (MCF), a group of mostly Croatian-Australian young men in their twenties who support Melbourne Knights (formerly known as Melbourne Croatia) in the second-tier Victorian Premier League competition. The aim is to explore identity formation and negotiation, and how identity formation informs relations with outsider groups. The interviews with the football club president, football club secretary, two MCF leaders, and the participant observation date back to the 2010-12 period. The supporters perceive that the club has fallen on hard times for reasons not of their own making. They participated in the former National Soccer League (NSL) (1977-2004) from 1984 to 2004, which was the first-ever national competition in Australia to involve club rather than state teams. However, the club was effectively banned from the new A-League (2005-present), which began based on a private-equity ownership model and a one-team-one-city concept. Despite this, the club can play in the annual knockout competition, the Australia Cup (formerly the FFA Cup), that features both A-League and lower-league teams. We observe here a group of young Croatian-Australian men, part of the Diaspora of Croatians that left the country, mostly in the communist era and afterwards, who aim to construct workable hybrid identities for themselves in an Anglo-majority nation on the other side of the world. They fight on two fronts-against an Anglo, corporate-style administration that effectively bans their club for reasons of ethnicity from the new national league, and against the Serbian youth who often live in the who live in adjacent or nearby suburbs and follow Serbian-origin clubs.
Advances in Applied Sociology, 2025
This article, part of a broader investigation into Fiji soccer history, focuses on alcohol and ev... more This article, part of a broader investigation into Fiji soccer history, focuses on alcohol and everyday resistance among players in the context of the Fiji Premier League and the Fiji national team. It highlights the role of alcohol as being a way of forging collective memories and as sometimes a tool that expresses frustration and resistance towards control by Fiji Indian team managements. Their wealth and lifestyle opportunities loom large as a spectre in the minds of Indigenous Fijians. Apart from soccer and after soccer, most Indigenous explayers stay as subsistence farmers in the villages and find it hard to move into paid employment in soccer or in related positions outside the game such as in media. They lack capital to start businesses, as ex-players in Global North countries can, because of the amateur nature of the sport, even at Fiji Premier League level, back in the 1980s. This contrasts too with the money earned by Indigenous Fijian rugby players overseas today. This creates not resentment, but melancholy and wistfulness as ex-players see the huge disparities in wealth between rugby stars of today that make it overseas and even the most talented soccer players of the 1980s.
Arts & Communication, 2024
Early Australian artists of European extraction had to wrestle with the vast, inhospitable climat... more Early Australian artists of European extraction had to wrestle with the vast, inhospitable climate of inland Australia, unfamiliar animals and plants, and harsh sunlight. To a greater or lesser extent, especially Boyd and Drysdale, they also considered the Aboriginal inhabitants and how Europeans' grip on the land and their understanding of it always paled in comparison with theirs, leaving the Europeans the ones out of place, infringing on a complex culture. Here, I use Marxist theories of ideology and art to examine the work of Kenneth Jack, an Australian realist painter of rural towns. His reassuring images are not confrontational, unlike those of Boyd and Drysdale. They can be ideological by pointing to an apparently timeless and tranquil midday peace, free from urban stressors and manufacturing and architectural blight. As with poet Banjo Paterson, they create a discourse that raises up life in "the bush. " These images can function as ideology where rural communities and services appear to be underappreciated and under threat. It is a conservative vision as the absence of people and vehicles reminds us, perhaps paradoxically, of romanticized rural communities just out of the painter's sight.
Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies, 2023
The aim of this article is to consider research method and research ethics issues in the unique l... more The aim of this article is to consider research method and research ethics issues in the unique location of the Fiji Islands. After arguing that Eurocentric, Anglo-American ethics clearance processes, embedded into Global North Universities, are culturally inappropriate, in the Fiji setting, I go on to imagine alternative ethics clearance questions that pick up on and reflect adequately Fiji's social and economic context. I discuss and explore why traversing relationships, relationships that traverse time and space through giving, receiving, obligation, reimbursement, and forgiveness, often emerge in the Fiji context, and how they can be a local, social equilibrium that benefits both parties. My own research on Fiji soccer history is used to provide illustrations and anecdotes throughout the article.
Journal of Australian Studies, 2023
Since the 1960s, Croatian soccer clubs have been an important feature of all major Australian cit... more Since the 1960s, Croatian soccer clubs have been an important feature of all major Australian cities, and a number of regional towns, with the most significant of these being Melbourne Croatia and Sydney Croatia, both of which played in Australia’s now defunct National Soccer League (NSL) (1977–2004). Effectively barred from the new A-League, from 2005 to 2006, these clubs experienced marginalisation and discrimination
similar to that experienced historically by Irish-Catholic clubs in Scotland. This article aims to explore both Croatian-Australian identity and narratives about exclusion through the perspectives of key Melbourne Croatia representatives.
SCIREA: Journal of Sociology, 2023
The subject of this article is the role of alcohol in elite amateur soccer in the Fiji Islands co... more The subject of this article is the role of alcohol in elite amateur soccer in the Fiji Islands covering the period 1975-2015. Based on interviews with six ex-Premier League players from the 1980s, and participant-observation as a friend and confidante of one ex-star (Henry Dyer), we conclude that alcohol was used as a comforter, bonding mechanism/social lubricant, form of currency, recreational drug, tool of tribute, tool of rebellion, and source of temptation. Alcohol-related events reveal the wealth disparity and income-inequality between the Fiji Indian businessmen, who manage, control and sponsor the sport, and the mostly very poor players (both Indigenous and Fiji Indian) who require payment and organization from powerful (sometimes remote) others in order to be able to go on overseas playing trips. The players resent this inequality, and find ways to assert their independence, but in a way which also maximizes the enjoyment factor and creates long-lasting memories, which can be later recalled at will as the years go by.
Women's Studies International Forum, 2021
We study two hostess pubs on Joo Chiat Road, Singapore-a "Filipina pub" and a "Vietnam pub". We c... more We study two hostess pubs on Joo Chiat Road, Singapore-a "Filipina pub" and a "Vietnam pub". We compare and contrast the customer demographics of each establishment, and the resultant culture, which is a function of the ethnic-group of the hostesses, the demographics of the customers, the policies and ethos of the owner/ manager, and the pricing model whereby hostesses get financially rewarded. Regarding pricing model, the Filipina pub relies upon "ladies drinks" whereas the Vietnam pub fosters a tipping system. Whilst the ladies drinks model signifies a hyper-capitalist business environment, the tipping model is feudal, honour-based and debt-based. We use as a theoretical lens the concept of "cosmopolitanism" and ask whether a "grounded" "cosmopolitan ethics" is even possible in an industry which is attractive to customers largely because of its structural, racial, and gendered differences and inequalities.
Sport in Society, 2022
This article uses the qualitative ‘narrative analysis’ method to explore and reflect upon the pos... more This article uses the qualitative ‘narrative analysis’ method to explore and reflect upon the post-retirement issues faced by a small sample of Fiji elite ex-national-league soccer players. The sample consists of one Indo-Fijian and six indigenous Fijians. All experience lives of practical poverty and, for the indigenous men, their lives are defined by village customary routines and obligations. Perhaps surprisingly, the experiences of the Indo-Fijian ex-player are not too dissimilar because he shares social-class affiliation with his interviewed ex-teammates. The bonds between these ex-players remain strong and the ex-legend Joe Tubuna, killed in a motor-vehicle accident in 1984, still casts a presence which links them to the past, to the land, and to each other via the medium of shared localized memories.
Sport History Review, 2022
In this article, we review one iconic match in Fiji soccer history, the 1982 Inter-District Champ... more In this article, we review one iconic match in Fiji soccer history, the 1982 Inter-District Championship Final, when bad light stopped play after ten kicks each in the penalty shootout with penalty goals tied at 6-6. In interviews with exadministrators and players from the match, we learn that Ba reneged upon a "gentlemen's agreement," between the two team presidents, not to turn up for any replay match scheduled for outside of Nadi, the original venue. Ba turned up at the replay venue and claimed the trophy much to the disgust of Nadi supporters and officials. Because the Indo-Fijian community "controls" coaching and administrative positions in soccer, it is able to fashion and refashion how Indigenous Fijian men's bodies are presented and administered within the sport. Significantly, race and class combine to make it difficult for Indigenous ex-players to move into coaching and administrative positions in soccer postretirement.
Advances in Applied Sociology, 2022
This article considers criminality within elite amateur soccer in Fiji, covering the period 1975-... more This article considers criminality within elite amateur soccer in Fiji, covering the period 1975-2015. My discussion includes examples of on-field behaviour, which breaks codes of sportsmanship, such as the "throwing" of games; and off-field behaviour, such as robberies of jewelry stores committed by one prominent ex-player. This same ex-player also escapes police while warming up for a match on the pitch. We see the ex-player involved interpreting his own conduct, 25-30 years after the fact, in a way suggestive of existentialist or Foucauldian ethics. But his now assistant village headman status gives an implicit Kantian moral force to his arguments. Crucially, the article emphasizes the key distinction between village and town space and between village mores and town-based (criminal) laws.
Sport History Review, 2021
The authors use the theoretical idea of "gesturing elsewhere," taken from the work of popular mus... more The authors use the theoretical idea of "gesturing elsewhere," taken from the work of popular music scholar Emma Baulch, to explain how the local Fiji soccer community receives its meaning and identity largely as the local-outpost or chapter of the global soccer scene. Therefore, a victory over the sporting powerhouse Australia boosts the self-image of the Fiji soccer world by temporarily upturning the established hierarchies. The shock 1988 win saw Fiji assigned extra credibility in the global context. The authors also look at the Indo-Fijian (Fijians of Indian decent) emigrant communities of the West and argue that, through their ongoing love of Fiji soccer, they play a role akin to offshore memory or offshore library, cataloging past history and revering past stars and classic contests.
Educational Process: International Journal
The basis of the ethical dilemma discussed in this article is the controversy surrounding the per... more The basis of the ethical dilemma discussed in this article is the controversy surrounding the personal relationship between a student and their lecturer. The social constructs of university highlight that the potential for any friendship or relationship within the institution is very uncommon and both parties usually assume that integration of their social groups cannot take place. Many people argue that the relationship of this nature can adversely affect grade attainment and fairness of judgement. We assess and reflect upon the merits of this conventional view by drawing upon a real-life case-study involving the first author (a lecturer) and the remaining six authors (his students). After considering the various arguments on both sides, and drawing upon authors such as Freud, Marx, and Sartre, we conclude that, if individuals remain honest, the relationship can only mean a greater understanding for the student and a lesser alienation complex for both parties.
Soccer & Society, 2021
Primary data was used to analyse the views and opinions held by Pakistani-Scots in Greater Glasgo... more Primary data was used to analyse the views and opinions held by Pakistani-Scots in Greater Glasgow, Scotland, about whether they prefer Celtic or Rangers Football Clubs. The question is important, sociologically, due to Celtic’s Irish-Catholic-Republican sympathies and Rangers’ British-Loyalist-Unionist perspective, neither of which seems to naturally gel with the Muslim orientation of Glasgow’s Pakistanis (8.1% of the city’s population). The research method was a survey of 51 respondents, all ethnic-Pakistanis ordinarily resident in Greater Glasgow, and a total of 5 interviews. Results reveal that the majority of survey respondents prefer Celtic over Rangers and 86% would support a new Asian/Muslim club. But how it would be formed, whether all players would be Asian, and how it would be received were all hotly-debated topics.
International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 2021
This article explores the soccer career of the ex-Fiji national-team player, Henry Dyer, and his ... more This article explores the soccer career of the ex-Fiji national-team player, Henry Dyer, and his post-retirement struggles. He experiences 'fragmentation' because of two 'epiphanies' (traumatic life-events)-his failure to get an elite coaching job after retirement and failure to secure an overseas playing-contract. After a period of fragmentation, when he cut all ties with the sport, he has reinvented himself as a caring person who, through the social and support club, Nadi Legends Club, visits ex-players going through illness. We also use Henry's story as a gateway to explore (1) race and class aspects; and (2) masculinity issues. We look at the case through the theoretical lenses of symbolic interactionism and Foucault on power.
International Journal of Tourism Cities, 2021
Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prospects of Belfast as a Tourism City wi... more Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prospects of Belfast as a Tourism City with a special focus on dark (troubles) tourism. Design/methodology/approach-This paper uses two surveysone for overseas-based potential tourists and one for Northern Ireland residents; one focus group with potential tourists; and three interviews, one with a Belfast MP and two with tour-guide operators, one from each side of the Northern Ireland divide. This paper is less theoretical than exploratory. Findings-Generally, there is strong and widespread support for the concept of troubles tourism. Stakeholders must ensure that troubles tourism is intelligently and sensitively handled and builds up communities. Originality/value-This is a relatively new and under-researched area. Belfast has been rarely looked at in urban-tourism studies. Findings have applicability for other post-conflict and divided countries, such as the countries of the former Yugoslavia.
Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, 2018
Introduction, by Kieran James This article describes and explores the early life of Fiji national... more Introduction, by Kieran James This article describes and explores the early life of Fiji national soccer champion Henry Dyer. It covers the period 1962-1982 and gives a fascinating insight into growing up in multi-racial Lautoka City, in Fiji's western region, during the tail-end of and immediately following the era of British colonial rule. The article also describes the challenges which Henry Dyer faced as a mixed-race child of English and indigenous Fijian heritage. Henry Dyer played for both Nadi and Lautoka in the Fiji national-league in the 1980s and represented the Fiji national team in many games, including the 1983 South Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa; the May 1985 friendly 3-0 win over England's Newcastle United; and the unsuccessful June 1985 winter tour of New Zealand. Henry presently lives in Nakavu Village, Nadi Town, Fiji Islands, where he has served as both assistant and acting village headman.
Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, 2022
Singapore's political struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, between a Chinese-educated, workingclass ... more Singapore's political struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, between a Chinese-educated, workingclass left wing and a middle-class, English-educated faction, have not been completely eradicated but continue to cast a shadow over modern political developments. The moderate, Englisheducated faction achieved an important victory when it took over control of the People's Action Party (PAP) in the early 1960s. However, the surprise ascendancy of the Workers' Party (WP), under Low Thia Khiang, has seen a long-marginalized section of the Chinese-educated galvanize around a district, Hougang and Aljunied, and a Teochew-speaking charismatic but lowkey individual in Mr Low. The WP's ability to develop an enduring 'brand' over the 2006-2013 period surprised many commentators. By 2013 it had become Singapore's second-strongest political force.
Soccer & Society, 2020
This article explores the race and class issues which continue to define Fiji soccer and perplex ... more This article explores the race and class issues which continue to define Fiji soccer and perplex its stakeholders up to the present day. Cultural hegemony is clearly present with indigenous Fijian ex-star players finding it difficult to reach positions of status in administration and management after their playing careers end; this usually condemns them to a life of village-based poverty and (from a secular western standpoint) unemployment. The Fiji-Indian community (37.5% of the total population) 'controls' the game, and indigenous Fijian stars are basically accepted as players but not as managers or administrators. Although deliberate racism is probably not common, the game's culture is imbued with a 'racial feeling', to quote the ex-Ba and Fiji player (and Fiji-Indian) Julie Sami, and is exclusionary in its effects. Fiji-Indian stereotypes of indigenous Fijians as lazy, ill-disciplined, and prone to drunkenness mirror white stereotypes about black footballers referred to in prior literature.
Journal of Physical Fitness, Medicine & Treatment in Sports, 2020
Football is evolving. From what was a working-class fan's weekly relief from the ills of capitali... more Football is evolving. From what was a working-class fan's weekly relief from the ills of capitalism, football has now become the very embodiment of the system itself. The modern fan see the hierarchy of their football club, especially at the very top level, acting solely in the interest of profit maximization and dragging their values through the dirt as they seek to commodify their lifelong passion to the point that it has become unrecognizable. A club's identity is its heart and soul for many supporters and traditions built upon 100 years of history in most cases, is being lost in this transition into the new age. Capitalism cares nothing for the beloved integrity or heart of a football club but conversely seeks to rip that heart out of the institution, alienating fans and communities from any sense of identity. For a communal feel to return to football, it is vital that football morphs back to its classification as a working-class sport and its roots are restored for fans to identify with their beloved game once more.
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Papers by Kieran E . James
similar to that experienced historically by Irish-Catholic clubs in Scotland. This article aims to explore both Croatian-Australian identity and narratives about exclusion through the perspectives of key Melbourne Croatia representatives.