Comments on: Harry Potter Takes Fans from Apathy to Activism http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/01/24/harry-potter-takes-fans-from-apathy-to-activism/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Christopher Cwynar http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/01/24/harry-potter-takes-fans-from-apathy-to-activism/comment-page-1/#comment-63353 Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:47:35 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=8071#comment-63353 This post is a great primer on the HPA and its activities. Thanks, Ashley. I particularly appreciate the manner in which you connect the projects conducted by the HPA to the question of political engagement on the part of today’s youth. It strikes me that something like the HPA is able to bypass the tedious debates pertaining to the left/right political spectrum in large part because it does have an inherently international orientation to it and also because it is not focused on one particular set of issues. Something like the HPA seems to be able to draw in individuals from many corners and to anchor their involvement through their shared affective and intellectual investments in the HP storyworld. At the same time, the fact that the HPA’s range of projects is variegated might help to promote a productive sense of community and diversity within its ranks. This in and of itself seems as though it might be a positive outcome given our collective need for increased cross-cultural/social/class et cetera understanding in our increasingly globalized world.

I would be interested to see whether or not others have attempted to replicate the HPA model in other ways through other fictional worlds. It seems to be that this might be a constructive model for collective action going forward.

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