Each issue will consist of double-blind peer-reviewed full papers, alongside with an editorially reviewed section consisting of data papers (data sets and complementary text), reviews, conference reports, and a “Method Lab” section with shorter papers and interviews that provide insight into work-in-progress, methodological challenges, as well as best practices. Other creative format suggestions are also welcome. Furthermore, we invite themed guest sections for every issue.
Cultural interaction and participation in their myriad forms – from critical and affirmative audience responses to civic engagement and consumer activism – have become highly mediatised phenomena taking place in both analogue and digital spheres. Accordingly, doing research in the fields of Participation and Fan Studies requires a sensibility for media-specific contexts and a diverse set of methodological tools adapted to them. It also benefits a lot from interdisciplinary cooperation and discourse. The journal aims to foster synergies between all disciplines interested in fan phenomena, e.g. Media and Communication Studies, Sociology, and Digital Humanities among others, and invites contributions focusing on a wide range of fan cultural and civic practices, mainstream as well as niche identities and media. It is especially interested in digital platforms and infrastructures as frameworks for a diverse range of cultural practices and as a home to many fan, brand, and other communities.
Fandom / Cultures / Research is an openly accessible, bilingual online journal (English/German), published via the open access repository media/rep/ aiming to establish an innovative platform to further develop the understanding of situated cultural practice and ultimately, to negotiate the methodological foundations of their investigation.
We welcome a variety of topics and critical approaches including, but not limited to the following:
Peer-reviewed full papers and themed sections:
- Fandom and cultural participation in an era of platformization
- Community responses to the crises of our times: climate change, pandemic aftermath, war
- New and old questions of power, exploitation, and dependency in (fan)cultural spheres
- Modes and formats of ,following’
- Celebrity culture(s) online
- Networked political activism
- Cultural industries and cultural participation
- Forms and expressions of (online) fan creativity
Editorially reviewed section:
- Methodological and ethical reflections: ,best practices’ and ,lessons learned’
- Data papers: data sets explained in context
- Conference reports
- Book reviews
Note by the editors: In the spirit of dismantling institutional hierarchies, we want to encourage early career researchers – who often have unique access to online niches and communities and thus produce highly relevant work – to publish their findings with us (even if it is only in the form of a shorter paper, review, or a data set). Please note that we also provide the opportunity to publish papers in English or in German to make the publishing process easier for you.
Editors: Vera Cuntz-Leng (Philipps-Universität Marburg), Sophie G. Einwächter (Philipps-Universität Marburg), Anne Ganzert (Universität Konstanz), Vanessa Ossa (Technische Hochschule Köln)
in cooperation with Dominika Ciesielska (Jagiellonian University, Kraków), Kaya Mogge (Philipps-Universität Marburg), Elsa-Margareta Venzmer (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), and the Fan and Participation Studies workgroup of the German Society for Media Studies (GfM)
Language: Bilingual, English/German
Publishing mode and quality management: Peer-reviewed section for articles; editorially reviewed section for method lab and data papers as well as conference reports and reviews. Biannual publication, OA via media/rep/.
Please send your proposals (working title, abstract of max. 300 words, short biography) to
fcr-journal@uni-marburg.de by December 1st, 2023.
(Full papers are due on July 1st 2024, other contributions (data papers, reviews, conference reports) are due on September 1st.)