In this second edition of Understanding Fandom, Rukmini Pande expands on the original scholarship of Mark Duffett to address the shifting landscape of fan studies.

In an era in which questions of social identity have begun to transform the field, Pande examines the accelerating global convergence of popular culture, social media platforms, and high transmissibility of content through online streaming. This book offers a comprehensive guide to studying and interpreting the complexity of fan culture, covering diverse histories, key theories, contemporary flashpoints, and future directions for fan research.

Grounded in critical theory and intersectional analysis, this book offers an insightful reframing of fan cultures and fan studies that will sharpen the field's approach to the analysis of fan texts, platforms, interpretation, community formation, labor, globalization, and more. In order to introduce students and scholars to the wide range of debates within the field the book will encompass a broad range of case studies – ranging from cosplay and fanfiction to Bollywood and K-Pop – from across the world. Once seen as obsessed and passive consumers of content, fans and fan cultures today are now acknowledged as key players in the global mediascape.