my deep thoughts of the month

[schmerica]

Here is my question of the day for you all:

One of my favorite things about fandom (and I think a lot of people share this) is the sense of community that's evolved with it -- the fan to fan connections. But there's this thing that comes up in pretty much meta discussion we have, and that's the question of what we mean by community.

What do we mean by community? What does it take to be a member of that community? Is it a matter of self definition, so that what it takes to be part of the community is acknowledging and accepting yourself into it? Or is community framed by actions, a structure based on us all doing the same things together? You read fic, you write fic, you make art, you participate in fannish infastructure and interact with other fans, therefore you are a Fan; you make slash and see slash, therefore you're a slasher? Is it just a general sort of collegiality? Is there an ideological component -- some fixed ideas or thoughts that we expect members of the community to generally share or agree on, as a base?

What do you guys think?

Comments

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Heh. I think that the popular connotation of 'community' is 'the nurturing family of likeminded people that I'm part of' and the connotation of 'subculture' is 'the group of weirdos that you're part of'!

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

May be, but having grown up in a number of communities, I've come to appreciate subcultures a LOT.