PhD Defence Vlada Botoric
Adult fans of LEGO in the branded participatory playground: A theoretical and empirical study
Info about event
Time
Friday 8 February 2019 at 12.30 PM Vlada Botoric, MSc, will be defending his dissertation
Location:
School of Communication and Culture,
The small Auditorium, Incuba Science Park,
Building 5510, Room 104,
Aabogade 15, Aarhus N.
Assessment committee:
Matt Hills, Professor of Media and Film, Department of Media, Journalism and Film, University of Huddersfield, UK
Thessa Jensen, Associate Professor, Department of Communication and Psychology, InDiMedia, Aalborg University, DK
Susanne Eichner, Associate Professor, School of Communication and Culture, Media Studies, Aarhus University, DK (Chair)
Supervisor:
Christian Ulrik Andersen, Associate Professor, School of Communication and Culture, Department of Digital Design and Information Studies, Aarhus University
Co-supervisor:
Anne Marit Waade, Associate Professor, School of Communication and Culture, Media Studies, Aarhus University
The defence is public, and everybody is wel-come; the defence, scheduled for a maxi-mum of three hours, will be held in English.
The dissertation is available for reading on location at this address:
School of Communication and Culture
Department of Digital Design and Information Studies
Building 5347, Helsingforsgade 14, Aarhus N
Abstract (in English)
LEGO as a trans-generational multimedia empire attracts children and adults of
all ages and professions. LEGO fan base is one of the most active in the world.
In the case of adult LEGO fandom and the productive practices that result from
it, we know little about how fans perceive their own creative expressions,
whether these are of pure hedonistic experience or they have some objective
ends. Fans in general are characterized by a strong ethos of sharing, learning
and creativity, rather than desire for promotion or money earning. My idea was
to find out more about motives of the adult fans of LEGO since they have been
increasingly savvy recently about the value created through their practices and
engagement. Creative and innovative capacity of powerful army of AFOLs (Adult
Fans of LEGO) towards self-organization, along with knowledge and skill they
demonstrate in their creations, I understand as the very source of value. The
affective proximity that AFOLs have developed and nurtured over decades is one
of the most important elements that generates value.
Although existing research points socially recognized self-realization as primary
motivation for fans that create, innovate, collaborate and share for the intrinsic
pleasures, I refine existing research and suggest that AFOLs have multiple roles
in the process of value creation, because they act as creators and beneficiaries
at the same time by creating value for themselves, for their community and for
the company. I am suggesting that business models have found yet another way
to expand in order to impact fan base and to influence their future fandom
activities and performance.
I have been a passionate LEGO collector and participant observer of the LEGO
phenomenon for all my life, reflexive nature characterizes my account. I selfconsciously
discuss my own fandom experience in order to position myself as a
researcher and expose privileges and biases. Therefore, I identify myself as an
aca-fan (academic fan), as a researcher who is a member of both the academic
and the fan community, overlapping the existence of these communities. The
data set from my empirical analysis comes from my empirical research that
includes fieldwork: interviews during fan events, focus group and research visit
to the LEGO House; online sources, both administered by the LEGO Group and
fan-based online sources; my own experience, auto-ethnographic accounts as a
LEGO aca-fan.