CfP Ashgate Research Companion to Fan Cultures

Beiträge zu Metal-Fans sind wohl gerne gewünscht...


In recent years, the internet in general and social media in particular have fundamentally changed our media culture. The relationship between producers and consumers has shifted, creating new power relationships. Media culture has become more and more about participation, while technological developments such as ‘Facebook liking’ have further blurred the traditional distinction between fans and audiences. Fans represent the vanguard of these new developments. Insights from early fan studies on active audiences have spread to other notions of the audience. These developments call for a critical rethinking of the role and significance of fans in contemporary culture.
Herewith we invite proposals for a new handbook of Fan Cultures, part of the Ashgate Research Companion Series. We welcome contributions from established scholars in the media and communication, sociology and psychology, or any related field. Topics of interest for this research companion include, but are not limited to:
- histories of fan cultures / fan studies
- fan geographies
- disciplinary challenges
- studying fans: methodological issues
- power and identity among fans
- haters, non-fans and anti-fans
- individual fans vs fan communities
- the producer-consumer continuum
- online fan spaces
- uses and meanings of fan technologies
Ashgate Companions offer a comprehensive and authoritative state-of-the-art review of current research in a particular area. The Companion's editor brings together a team of respected and experienced experts to write new chapters on the key issues in their specialty.

Submission details:
Submissions should describe original contributions and should not have been published or submitted elsewhere. Please send an abstract of your submission (max. 300 words), accompanied by a brief bio (max 50 words), to Koos Zwaan (koos.zwaan@inholland.nl). The editors will select a number of abstracts for the volume, which will be included in the proposal for review by the publisher. Subject to review and the issue of a contract, the authors of the selected abstracts will be invited to submit full chapters for publication in the volume.
Deadline abstract submission: December 1, 2011
Notification: December 14, 2011

Editors:
Dr. Linda Duits
Affiliated researcher
Research Institute for History and Culture
Utrecht University
info@lindaduits.nl

Dr. Stijn Reijnders
Associate Professor in Cultural Heritage
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication
Erasmus University Rotterdam
reijnders@eshcc.eur.nl

Dr. Koos Zwaan
Associate Professor of Media, Culture and Citizenship Inholland University of Applied Sciences, Diemen, The Netherlands koos.zwaan@inholland.nl