Configuring the Field of Character and Entertainment Licensing

Book excerpt: This book examines the creative impact of licensing on the entertainment industry, how licensing practitioners’ occupational disposition is formed, and the role licensing professionals play in managing the circulation of intellectual property. Offering a study of the spatial logics and fantasies employed by the licensing field via its annual trade show, the Licensing Expo, this volume investigates how space and place are instrumental in both fortifying and exposing the political-economic, infrastructural, as well as ideological structures that constrain and enable participation in the licensing field. Further supplemented by participant observation and interviews with 23 industry professionals, the book explores how the licensing field understands its increasingly central role in the entertainment industry’s operations, and how it responds to changes in retail environments, digital platforms, and international markets, phenomena which have required a recalibration of the field’s occupational identity. An exploration of an understudied aspect of the entertainment industry, this book will primarily appeal to scholars within media studies, and those studying media industries, media franchises, and media work cultures. It will also be of interest to people studying consumer culture, brand culture, advertising, organizational communication, as well as fan cultures.