The sociocultural dynamics of fansubbing Skam France into English: A Bourdieusian perspective

Lloyd, Jacob 2025. The sociocultural dynamics of fansubbing Skam France into English: A Bourdieusian perspective. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

This thesis analyses the interplay of social forces bound up in the fansubbing into English of Skam France (Hourregue et al. 2018-2023), a French TV and web series handling socially significant themes such as racial inequality, sexual discrimination, and queer romance in a high-school setting. Fansubbing—the production of subtitles by fans, for fans—is a contemporary translational practice involving online communities of users-turned-coproducers collaborating to achieve a shared social goal. Drawing on Bourdieusian theory, I map the social dynamics that characterise the Skam France fansubbing community and highlight how these inflect the subtitles produced. Complementing a textual analysis of the group’s fansubs, I analyse participant-based qualitative data from questionnaires and interviews with its members. The first analytical chapter is a textual analysis of the strategies, features, and levels of quality that characterise the fansubs themselves. These subtitles typically demonstrate creative, interventionist strategies that are tailored to meet the specific needs and expectations of their audience, foregrounding the presence of the translator. In the chapter on Field, I conceptualise Skam France fansubbing as a socially regulated activity taking place in a subfield of cultural production. This subfield’s members exist along an ever-shifting spectrum of participation from passive viewers to engaged fans and practising fansubbers. In the chapters on Capital and Habitus, I demonstrate that the Skam France fansubbers are motivated and characterised primarily by collaboration, resistance to dominant sociocultural and translational norms, and a communal social cause. This thesis contributes to translation studies by engaging critically with debates around translator visibility, translation quality, and audience participation. Moreover, it demonstrates the underexplored applicability of Bourdieusian sociology to collaborative settings. Finally, the research contributes to our understanding of current fansubbing practices and to novel conceptualisations of translation in relation to modern technologies, empowered Web 2.0 users, and social media.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > Modern Languages
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	12 January 2026
Last Modified:	12 Jan 2026 14:49
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/183785

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