You know I'm an academic because I regularly go over the LJ character length limit *sigh*
I came back to read through all the great comments and was re-reading your post and noticed this part:
But the mere fact that Williams refused to talk to anyone except Professor Jenkins is indicative that they have not changed mindsets – indeed, that they still are clueless about how fandom actually works. I have only the utmost respect for Professor Jenkins and the work he does with fandom, but the truth of the matter is he is not “one of us”. He is the benevolent anthropologist, an onlooker who may have established social ties with the community but not within the community. Williams stated that he was willing to talk to Jenkins and not to members of fandom because he “had dual citizenship in fandom and academia” – and that, right there, is why FanLib is failing. Williams fails to grasp that fandom is its own self-contained unit and does not appreciate intrusion from outside, and that “academia” is not a part of the community and therefore communication with an “academic” because he is an academic, even one as partial to fandom as Jenkins, is hardly going to gain you acceptance in fandom.
I wanted to point out this post where jadelennox makes a good point, relating to yours, that Jenkins is not a "citizen" in the dual citizenship analogy: Post here. (http://caras-galadhon.livejournal.com/322332.html) Jade put forth a better metaphor: Jenkins has an Honorary Degree from Fanfic University, conferred for his valuable and respectful outsider engagement.
I think Jenkins (sorry, I'm speaking out of academic style habit where we don't use the honorific just the last names--and I know that might sound disrespectful but since I'm here partly as an academic I'm going to stick with it!) was in fandom at one time, but that's a very different situation.
As an aca-fan (coined by Matt Hills, who is also a fan and a scholar), I juggle the different community/cultural issues daily. While there are many academics in fandom (as Stewardess noted above, LOTR may have more than the average percentage, but knowing my aca friends as I do, I *know* they are in Smallville, Supernatural, and SGA like whoa!), not all academics are aca-fan (those of us who do scholarship on fandom or fan fiction). (Matt Hills also acknowledges the scholarship fan-scholars do--those fans trained in academic methodologies who write scholarship for fans, not for an academic audience).
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
reposted to correct html: insider/outsider part 1
Date: 2007-05-27 05:06 am (UTC)I came back to read through all the great comments and was re-reading your post and noticed this part:
But the mere fact that Williams refused to talk to anyone except Professor Jenkins is indicative that they have not changed mindsets – indeed, that they still are clueless about how fandom actually works. I have only the utmost respect for Professor Jenkins and the work he does with fandom, but the truth of the matter is he is not “one of us”. He is the benevolent anthropologist, an onlooker who may have established social ties with the community but not within the community. Williams stated that he was willing to talk to Jenkins and not to members of fandom because he “had dual citizenship in fandom and academia” – and that, right there, is why FanLib is failing. Williams fails to grasp that fandom is its own self-contained unit and does not appreciate intrusion from outside, and that “academia” is not a part of the community and therefore communication with an “academic” because he is an academic, even one as partial to fandom as Jenkins, is hardly going to gain you acceptance in fandom.
I wanted to point out this post where
I think Jenkins (sorry, I'm speaking out of academic style habit where we don't use the honorific just the last names--and I know that might sound disrespectful but since I'm here partly as an academic I'm going to stick with it!) was in fandom at one time, but that's a very different situation.
As an aca-fan (coined by Matt Hills, who is also a fan and a scholar), I juggle the different community/cultural issues daily. While there are many academics in fandom (as Stewardess noted above, LOTR may have more than the average percentage, but knowing my aca friends as I do, I *know* they are in Smallville, Supernatural, and SGA like whoa!), not all academics are aca-fan (those of us who do scholarship on fandom or fan fiction). (Matt Hills also acknowledges the scholarship fan-scholars do--those fans trained in academic methodologies who write scholarship for fans, not for an academic audience).