Archive for April 2018

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[ecrea] New book: Getting a Life - Benjamin Woo

Mon Apr 23 21:59:28 GMT 2018



We would like to announce a new publication from McGill-Queen's University Press, which we hope will be of interest.

*Getting a Life***

The Social Worlds of Geek Culture

*Benjamin Woo***

*_http://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/getting-a-life-content_**__*


"Long overlooked by those who study fandoms, subcultures and gendered identities, the Geek now gets the attention it deserves. Benjamin Woo’s /Getting a Life: The Social Worlds of Geek Culture/is a witty, smart book marked most of all by its methodological agility. Woo moves in to examine geek culture up close, then pulls back to illuminate its relationship to taste cultures, the boundary-work of social in-groups and the shifting relationship of capitalist media producers to their fans. Wit and humour run through this engaging book, but so, too, does a commitment to taking Geek culture seriously and fashioning the analytical tools with which to understand it."*– Will Straw, McGill University, and co-editor, with Alexandra Boutros, of /Circulation and the City: Essays on Urban Culture/**//*

Comic book superheroes, fantasy kingdoms, and futuristic starships have become inescapable features of today’s pop-culture landscape, and the people we used to deride as “nerds” or “geeks” have ridden their popularity and visibility to mainstream recognition. It seems it’s finally hip to be square. Yet these conventionalized representations of geek culture typically ignore the real people who have invested time and resources to make it what it is. /Getting a Life/recentres our understanding of geek culture on the everyday lives of its participants, drawing on fieldwork in comic book shops, game stores, and conventions, including in-depth interviews with ordinary members of the overlapping communities of fans and enthusiasts. Benjamin Woo shows how geek culture is a set of interconnected social practices that are associated with popular media. He argues that typical depictions of mass-mediated entertainment as something that isolates and pacifies its audiences are flawed because they do not account for the conversations, relationships, communities, and identities that are created by engaging with the products of mass culture. /Getting a Life/combines engaging interview material with lucid interpretation and a clear, interdisciplinary framework. The volume is both an accessible introduction to this contemporary subculture and an exploration of the ethical possibilities of a life lived with media.

*Benjamin Woo*is assistant professor of communication and media studies at Carleton University.

With all best wishes,

Combined Academic Publishers

*McGill-Queen's University Press**| February 2018 | 280pp | 9780773552845 | Hardback | £20.99**

*Price subject to change.


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