COMIKET : Innovative Fans and Playful Plagiarism

• This paper suggests that research on innovation in the cultural economy should lookbeyond firms and industrial formations in seeking to understand how values and trendsare produced. Sometimes, dynamic externalities are constructed in creative milieus byamateurs and consumers. One example is Comiket, the largest event for amateur comics inthe world. Twice a year half a million people gather in Tokyo to participate in shopping,sharing and enjoying. The event, and the subculture around it, is examined in an attemptto understand its role in innovation processes and the production of trends. The paperDifferentiates between three different characteristics of Comiket. Firstly, it is a marketplace where goods are distributed and sold; more specifically, it is a female-dominated,self-organized, bottom-up market where large mainstream publishers only have amarginal presence. Secondly, it is a space where trends are constructed and mediated –innovation, in this sense, being something negotiated among users and producers ratherthan the outcome of research or laboratory work. Moreover, plagiarism and provocationsof mainstream culture are driving forces of these creative processes. Thirdly, Comiket is aplayground for leisure and exhibition: an unusual physical meeting place for an economicand cultural sphere, where the internet is rapidly becoming the terra firma.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Comiket

Event

User Innovation

Creative Milieu

Cultural Economy

Japan

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)