We seize control for the greater good

The objective of this thesis is to map how we can learn from fan cultures in relation to politics. It does so by exploring the role of community construction and social capital within the Harry Potter fandom. Community construction is involved with the sense of belonging to a community and how one plays a role in this. Social capital is concerned with the number of connections one can gather and therefore can offer an insight in the rise or decline of social cohesion. It is assumed, that by exploring a fandom, fan practices will be comparable with political processes. With the help of a content analysis performed on two fan websites and interviews with fans an insight is given in the construction of the fan community. The results of this research indicate that social capital indeed plays a great role within belonging to a community, though it has to be seen as a factor that can change. A fan can opt to fulfil an active role or not. Fans discuss, share and argue about the topic which indicates they have certain knowledge or seek to learn that in order to participate within the community. Therefore, the most important lesson to be learned from this thesis is that this activity is caused by having or looking for a mutual factor. A fandom is a micro-democracy (Jenkins, 2006), which shows, as was seen in the results of this thesis, strong cohesion, because of the mutual object of affection. This makes it interesting to understand the workings of a fandom for political ends.