‘I’m Scunthorpe ’til I die’: Constructing and (Re)negotiating Identity through the Terrace Chant

The terrace chant, despite many varied efforts toward its control, remains a central part of many a match‐day experience. Using ethnographic data collected from Scunthorpe United Football Club over the course of the 2002/03 season, this essay explores the supporters’ utilization of songs at football matches, concentrating on the dialogic exchanges between sets of supporters. Using the insights offered by R. Jenkins, G. Armstrong and J. Bale, the paper argues that despite the modernising emphasis on placelessness present within the sport, supporters use songs to construct their own affective place‐related collective identities, whilst manipulating cultural bricolage to (re)negotiate and manage the collective identity of the other.