"Vi är gröna-vita, vi är Färjestad!" : En durkheimiansk analys av Färjestad BK:s klubbmärke och klubbfärger som identitets- och gemenskapsskapande symboler

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to examine the symbolic use in sports and thus discuss the limits of what can be seen as religion and what can be said to be sacred and profane in our time. Data were collected through participant observation during and in connection with the ice hockey games in Löfbergs Arena in Karlstad. Collected data is then analyzed based on Émile Durkheim's theory of the elementary forms of religion. The results indicate that the club badge and club colours of Färjestad BK can be interpreted as totems both before, during and after a ice hockey game. The symbols appear in a number of different contexts, and in some more exposed than others. They share largely the function of the totems in the Australian and North American tribes that Durkheim studied because it bind together and create identification between the fans of Färjestad. Färjestad's symbols are those that to some extent create and maintain sacred and profane, maintain the group and at the same time separates it from others.