Fuck yeah, Fandom is Beautiful

Abstract First-wave ethnographic work in fan studies, especially that of Henry Jenkins, Camille Bacon-Smith, Constance Penley, Roberta Pearson and John Tulloch, remains foundational to contemporary fan scholarship. Jenkins’ work in particular remains relevant for its ongoing commitment to fandom as a social identity and as a network; this contrasts sharply with the work of later scholars who see fandom as a matter of enthusiastic but individual engagement. It is important for fan scholars both to revisit and to emulate first-wave scholarship because the terms of the relationship between fans and the entertainment industry are being radically renegotiated. Fandom is increasingly understood to have economic and promotional value to content producers, and there is a danger that fandom-as-enthusiasm is being encouraged by producers even as fans are in danger of being alienated from their creative labour and from each other as a community.