Beyond Subcultural Community: A Sociological Analysis of Japanese Animation Fans and Fandoms

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dc.contributor.advisorYoung, Kevin M.
dc.contributor.advisorMcLean, Scott
dc.contributor.authorRobles Bastida, Nazario
dc.contributor.committeememberMcCoy, Liza
dc.contributor.committeememberBeaty, Bart
dc.contributor.committeememberAtkinson, Michael F.
dc.contributor.committeememberWhaley, Ben
dc.date2019-06
dc.date.accessioned2019-04-08T20:25:12Z
dc.date.available2019-04-08T20:25:12Z
dc.date.issued2019-04-05
dc.description.abstractThe 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.en_US
dc.identifier.citationRobles Bastida, N. (2019). Beyond subcultural community: A sociological analysis of Japanese animation fans and fandoms (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/36345
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/110147
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArtsen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subjectSubculturesen_US
dc.subjectConsumptionen_US
dc.subjectBoundary Worken_US
dc.subjectFansen_US
dc.subjectFandomen_US
dc.subjectJapanese Animationen_US
dc.subjectPopular Cultureen_US
dc.subjectCultural Studiesen_US
dc.subject.classificationMass Communicationsen_US
dc.subject.classificationEducation--Social Sciencesen_US
dc.subject.classificationEducation--Sociology ofen_US
dc.subject.classificationAnthropology--Culturalen_US
dc.titleBeyond Subcultural Community: A Sociological Analysis of Japanese Animation Fans and Fandomsen_US
dc.typedoctoral thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineSociologyen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgaryen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrue
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