From Fan Culture/Community to the Fan World

Possible Pathways and Ways of Having Done Fandom

Bibliographic Data

ID5837557
AuthorsMatt Hills (0000-0002-8778-6530, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume20
Issue4
Pages856-883
Publication date2017-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePalabra Clave (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0122-8285 • E-ISSN: 2027-534X
PublisherUniversidad de la Sabana (PUBLISHER • CO)
DOI10.5294/pacla.2017.20.4.2
OpenAlexW2760891342
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited21

In this article I revisit concepts of fan culture and community, which have been central to fan studies.Critiques of subcultural theory, along with fandom's fragmentation into "traditional" fans and "brand fans," have suggested that media fandom cannot be viewed as a coherent culture or community.Consequently, I consider how a concept of fan world addresses some of these emergent critiques of fan culture/community, setting out what a world theory can offer current debates surrounding fandom.I draw particularly on Howard Becker's approach to art worlds (Becker, 2008) and Steven Connor's overview of world concepts (Connor, 2010).This allows me to elaborate on a model of the fan world, moving away from a position where world theories have usually been adopted in relation to franchises' world building to think about the platforms and pathways through which fandom is performed today.Ways of "having done fandom" are chosen, more or less reflexively, by fans from an array of communal and individualized possibilities.And "paths not taken" become counterfactual as fans follow certain bran

Advertising · Fandom · Media studies · Popular culture · Sociology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Music History and Culture

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