El futbol y la construcción de una representación social llamada nación

Abstract

This text contains a reflection on the construction of the social repre-sentation of the “nation”; specifically it discusses such construction through the emotions generated around one of the most popular activities in the modern world: soccer in its modality of “The National Team”. The context of the analysis is that of globalization, a historic phase recognized as representing a decline of identification, especially with reference to the State; such identification is now developed most notably with regard to the National Team. However, far beyond the phenomenological differences which are detected, it is proposed here that in this type of construction of the social representation of the “nation”, the mechanisms of identification follow the same pattern. At the same time, the text sustains that the success of that kind of representation lies in the illusion of and freedom of choice.