Browsing by Author "Young, Kevin M."

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    Beyond Subcultural Community: A Sociological Analysis of Japanese Animation Fans and Fandoms
    (2019-04-05) Robles Bastida, Nazario; Young, Kevin M.; McLean, Scott; McCoy, Liza; Beaty, Bart; Atkinson, Michael F.; Whaley, Ben
    The study of media fandom has emphasized the subcultural nature of fans’ practices and relationships. The work of Henry Jenkins (2013) was especially influential in this regard. Proposing that media fans constituted both a subculture and an interpretive community, Jenkins reified fandoms as bounded, subcultural groups composed of nomadic readers. The current dissertation constitutes a powerful critique of this traditional approach to the study of media fandom. Through ethnographic research on Japanese animation fans in Mexico and Canada and a theoretical framework informed by the oeuvre of Pierre Bourdieu, I propose that Japanese animation fandom is not a bounded group, but rather a field of consumption, that is, a space of consumer positions articulated around particular tastes relating to Japanese animation and its associated texts and characters. While some of these positions correspond to local and trans-local communities, individual media consumers occupy others. From this perspective, in a similar manner to Bourdieu’s “field of cultural production”, Japanese animation fandom is much more complex and fluid than implied by the fandom-as-community paradigm. To approach this complexity, this dissertation explores knowledges, practices, localities and objects that are appropriated and deployed by Japanese animation fans in order to be closer to their favorite narratives and characters. In doing so, fans’ tastes and consumption practices become the core of a new approach to the study of media fandom.
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    Beyond white pride: identity and meaning in the Canadian skinhead subculture
    (1994) Craig, Laura; Young, Kevin M.
    This study uses a cultural studies framework to investigate whether the Canadian Skinhead subculture exists as a solution to problems in the social structure experienced by its members. Participant observation, including in-depth interviews, document analysis, and field work carried out in Calgary, Alberta from December, 1993 to March, 1994, was used as a procedure by which to investigate the meanings associated with membership in the Canadian Skinhead subculture in the 1990s. It is argued that although the Canadian Skinhead subculture employs many characteristics of the original British Skinheads, a partial transformation in the form the subculture adopts has occurred in accordance with the changing social circumstances. While the Canadian Skinhead subculture exists as a form of 'resistance' to dominant hegemony, the resistance tends to be 'magical' in the sense that it does not fundamentally alter the social and economic circumstances of its members.
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    Hazing in sport: an exploratory study of veteran/rookie relations
    (1997) Bryshun, Jamie; Young, Kevin M.
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    Horses, entertainment and sport: animal rights at the Calgary Stampede
    (2012) Gerber, Brittany; Young, Kevin M.
    In a society where questions regarding animal rights are on the rise, people are increasingly aware of the oppressive use of animals. A 'contested' view of animals has recently become the subject of sociological inquiry. Addressing the 'problematic' role of horses in modem society, this study seeks to develop an in-depth understanding of how questions of 'use' or 'abuse' have been woven into the Calgary Stampede, as illustrated by the vast Canadian media coverage annually. Specifically, this project utilized a systematic content analysis of three Canadian newspapers, combined with individual interviews with key individuals involved in the horse-use debate. Using a figurational approach, this study explores how this debate is historically situated, and how broader societal trends regarding the treatment of animals have impacted the acceptance of chuckwagon racing and rodeo as 'sports', and how various rule changes have been implemented to legitimize these events in contemporary Canadian society.
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    More than just a game?: a subcultural journey through the 'sport' of rock paper scissors
    (2011) McKeown, Donald J.; Young, Kevin M.
    As a newly emergent sport, Rock .Paper Scissors (RPS) has been an under-researched area of study in the sociology of sport. Individuals who are involved with RPS in one capacity or another can be seen to have entered into a contested terrain that challenges previously conceived notions of sport, lifestyle sport, subculture, and 'adulthood'. The result is a complex negotiation of play (in the most pure and child-like sense of the term) and sport both at the theoretical level between resistance and incorporation, and in the lived experiences of those involved in the RPS subculture. This can be seen while RPS subculture members negotiate with and reconcile ideas (and ideologies) of sport, play, and the notion of 'rejuvenile'. Using a cultural studies perspective, multiple methods were used (including semi-structured interviews, and observation) to understand the unique characteristics that have come to define and distinguish the sport of RPS and its respective subculture.
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    Negotiating the ring: reconciling gender in women's boxing
    (2006) Cove, Leslie; Young, Kevin M.
    As an emerging sport, female boxing has been an under-researched area of study in the sociology of sport. Girls and women who box enter a contested terrain of female participation that challenges dominant ideas of gender, aggression, and violence found both in sport and broader society. The result is a complex negotiation of gender and boxing both at the theoretical level between resistance and incorporation, and in the lived experiences of those involved in the boxing subculture, as they negotiate with and reconcile ideas ( and ideologies) of femininity. Using a cultural studies perspective, multiple methods were used (including semi-structured interviewing, observation, and content analysis) to understand gender ideologies and relations of power in female boxing.
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    Reading the play: interpreting violence in Canadian ice hockey
    (2009) Dumas, Steve; Young, Kevin M.
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