From Fan Culture/Community to the Fan World: Possible Pathways and Ways of Having Done Fandom

Abstract

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-1 orcid.org/0000-0002-8778-6530. University of Huddersfield, England. M.J. Hills@hud.ac.uk

The Footy Girls of Tumblr: How Women Found Their Niche in the Online Football Fandom

“…Moreover, as Lindlof (2015, p. 30) argues, the “texts” themselves may change, which is especially true for football, as the structures of the sport (e.g., rules, competition formats) and its actors are in a continuous flux. A fan community is thus not a coherent entity but rather a “loose affiliation of sub-subcultures, all specializing in different modes of fan activity” (Coppa, 2014; Hills, 2017, p. 860). In this array of subcultures, seemingly “wrong” versions of fandom are “subjected to the disapproval, discursive policing, othering, or more-or-less active neglect” (Hills, 2017, pp.…”

“…A fan community is thus not a coherent entity but rather a “loose affiliation of sub-subcultures, all specializing in different modes of fan activity” (Coppa, 2014; Hills, 2017, p. 860). In this array of subcultures, seemingly “wrong” versions of fandom are “subjected to the disapproval, discursive policing, othering, or more-or-less active neglect” (Hills, 2017, pp. 874–875), which has often happened to female sports fandom (see also Tanaka, 2004, p. 59).…”

Game rules vs. fandom. How Nintendo’s Animal Crossing fan-made content negotiates the videogame meanings.

“…In this case, this research shows how fans create content that interacts with the canonical text. But this fandom is not just a contracultural communication channel nor a simple way of reproducing the pre-existed hierarchies, they are part of a diverse world (Hills, 2017).…”

“…Apart from the aforementioned, it is worth to note that a taxonomy that splits fans between "traditional" or "brand" ones could be simplistic (Hills, 2017). As Matt Hills proposes, it is better to conceive fandom as a "set of pathways or branches" or "a network of networks" (Hills, 2017, p. 878) to better recognize the openness and possibilities of fandom universe.…”

Life as a Networked Fan

“…Some scholars have suggested that online communities and/or fandoms are fragmenting (Delanty, 2018;Coppa, 2014;Hills, 2017;Larsen and Zubernis, 2012). Instead, we suggest that digital technologies facilitate new types of networks which are fan-centric rather than fan community-centric, and which extend offline.…”