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Gandhi and Liberalism: Satyagraha and the Conquest of Evil
by Vinit HaksarOne of the main themes running through Gandhi’s life and work was the battle against evil. This book offers a fascinating reconstruction of Gandhi and the doctrine of Ahimsa or non-violence. Gandhi’s moral perfectionism is contrasted with other forms of perfectionism, but the book stresses that Gandhi also offered a doctrine of the second best. Following Gandhi, the author argues that outward violence with compassion is intrinsically not as good as non-violence with compassion, but it is a second best that is sometimes a necessary evil in an imperfect world. The book provides an illuminating analysis of coercion, non-co-operation, civil disobedience and necessary evil, comparing Gandhi’s ideas with that of some of the leading western moral, legal and political philosophers. Further, some of his important ideas are shown to have relevance for the working of the Indian Constitution. This book will be essential for scholars and researchers in moral, legal and political philosophy, Gandhi studies, political science and South Asian studies.
Gandhi and Architecture: A Time for Low-Cost Housing
by Venugopal MaddipatiGandhi and Architecture: A Time for Low-Cost Housing chronicles the emergence of a low-cost, low-rise housing architecture that conforms to M.K. Gandhi’s religious need to establish finite boundaries for everyday actions; finitude in turn defines Gandhi’s conservative and exclusionary conception of religion. Drawing from rich archival and field materials, the book begins with an exploration of Gandhi’s religiosity of relinquishment and the British Spiritualist, Madeline Slade’s creation of his low-cost hut, Adi Niwas, in the village of Segaon in the 1930s. Adi Niwas inaugurates a low-cost housing architecture of finitude founded on the near-simultaneous but heterogeneous, conservative Gandhian ideals of pursuing self-sacrifice and rendering the pursuit of self-sacrifice legible as the practice of an exclusionary varnashramadharma. At a considerable remove from Gandhi’s religious conservatism, successive generations in post-colonial India have reimagined a secular necessity for this Gandhian low-cost housing architecture of finitude. In the early 1950s era of mass housing for post-partition refugees from Pakistan, the making of a low-cost housing architecture was premised on the necessity of responding to economic concerns and to an emerging demographic mandate. In the 1970s, during the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries crisis, it was premised on the rise of urban and climatological necessities. More recently, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, its reception has been premised on the emergence of language-based identitarianism in Wardha, Maharashtra. Each of these moments of necessity reveals the enduring present of a Gandhian low-cost housing architecture of finitude and also the need to emancipate Gandhian finitude from Gandhi’s own exclusions. This volume is a critical intervention in the philosophy of architectural history. Drawing eclectically from science and technology studies, political science, housing studies, urban studies, religious studies, and anthropology, this richly illustrated volume will be of great interest to students and researchers of architecture and design, housing, history, sociology, economics, Gandhian studies, urban studies and development studies.
Gandhi and Adivasis: Tribal Movements in Eastern India (1914-1948)
by Debasree DeAdivasi movements played a very important, if not determining, role in the India’s freedom struggle. Gandhi’s idea of mass mobilization couldn’t have been successful without the active participation of all sections of the Indian society. Adivasi movements were swelled by Gandhian ideology only during the Non-Cooperation movement. Though Gandhi’s interest in the tribal problems crystallized at a later stage of his life, his influence on tribal movements was revealing. His association with Thakkar Bapa and Verrier Elwin also enriched his knowledge about tribal state of affairs. Adivasis started looking at Gandhi as saviour or a saint, who could deliver them justice and peace. But, Gandhi always supported Adivasi movements in order to give a mass character to his movements. There were some particular demands of the Adivasis that were not supported by Gandhi. Their armed struggle was also against his non-violent principles. During the latter half of the twentieth century, movements like Tana Bhagat and Hari Baba were purely influenced by the Gandhian ideology, but failed to achieve their goals. Later on, the Jharkhand movement adopted the character of a non-violent struggle; here also the fruits disappeared. The present work focuses on the first three movements of the Chota Nagpur Plateau of eastern India during Gandhi’s lifetime and the current movements against forceful displacement by POSCO, Vedanta and others, in order to comprehend his ideological impact on Adivasi movements of today. The book has critically analysed and evaluated Gandhi’s impact on the Adivasi situation in colonial and post-colonial India. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute print edition in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Gandhi: An Impossible Possibility
by Sudhir ChandraFor a man who made such a powerful intervention in the history of the 20th century, many of Mahatma Gandhi’s ideas were misunderstood or obfuscated during his lifetime. This book draws our attention to Gandhi’s last years, particularly the marked change in his understanding of the acceptance of non-violence by Indians. It points to a startling discovery Gandhi made in the years preceding India’s Independence and Partition: the struggle for freedom which he had all along believed to be non-violent was in fact not so. He realised that there was a causal relationship between the path of illusory ahimsa which had held sway during the freedom struggle and the violence that erupted thereafter during Partition. Calling for a serious rethink on the very nature and foundation of modern India, this book throws new light on Gandhian philosophy and its far-reaching implications for the world today. It will interest not only scholars and researchers of modern Indian history, politics, and philosophy but also lay readers.
Gandhi: An Impossible Possibility
by Sudhir ChandraGandhi was perhaps the most influential yet misunderstood figure of the twentieth century. Drawing close attention to his last years, this book explores the marked change in his understanding of the acceptance of non-violence by Indians. It points to a startling discovery Gandhi made in the years preceding India’s Independence and Partition: the struggle for freedom which he had all along believed to be non-violent was in fact not so. He realised that there was a causal relationship between the path of illusory ahimsa, which had held sway during the freedom struggle, and the violence that erupted thereafter during Partition. In the second edition of this much-acclaimed volume, Chandra revisits Gandhi’s philosophy to explain how and why the phenomenon of the Mahatma has been understood and misunderstood through the years. Calling for a rethink of the very nature and foundation of modern India, this book throws new light on Gandhian philosophy and its far-reaching implications for the world today. It will interest not only scholars and researchers of modern Indian history, politics and philosophy, but also lay readers.
Gaming Utopia: Ludic Worlds in Art, Design, and Media
by Claudia Costa PedersonIn Gaming Utopia: Ludic Worlds in Art, Design, and Media, Claudia Costa Pederson analyzes modernist avant-garde and contemporary video games to challenge the idea that gaming is an exclusively white, heterosexual, male, corporatized leisure activity and reenvisions it as a catalyst for social change. By looking at over fifty projects that together span a century and the world, Pederson explores the capacity for sociopolitical commentary in virtual and digital realms and highlights contributions to the history of gaming by women, queer, and transnational artists. The result is a critical tool for understanding video games as imaginative forms of living that offer alternatives to our current reality. With an interdisciplinary approach, Gaming Utopia emphasizes how game design, creation, and play can become political forms of social protest and examines the ways that games as art open doors to a more just and peaceful world.
Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture
by Andrei S. Markovits Lars RensmannThe globalizing influence of professional sportsProfessional sports today have truly become a global force, a common language that anyone, regardless of their nationality, can understand. Yet sports also remain distinctly local, with regional teams and the fiercely loyal local fans that follow them. This book examines the twenty-first-century phenomenon of global sports, in which professional teams and their players have become agents of globalization while at the same time fostering deep-seated and antagonistic local allegiances and spawning new forms of cultural conflict and prejudice.Andrei Markovits and Lars Rensmann take readers into the exciting global sports scene, showing how soccer, football, baseball, basketball, and hockey have given rise to a collective identity among millions of predominantly male fans in the United States, Europe, and around the rest of the world. They trace how these global—and globalizing—sports emerged from local pastimes in America, Britain, and Canada over the course of the twentieth century, and how regionalism continues to exert its divisive influence in new and potentially explosive ways. Markovits and Rensmann explore the complex interplay between the global and the local in sports today, demonstrating how sports have opened new avenues for dialogue and shared interest internationally even as they reinforce old antagonisms and create new ones.Gaming the World reveals the pervasive influence of sports on our daily lives, making all of us citizens of an increasingly cosmopolitan world while affirming our local, regional, and national identities.
Gaming the Dynamics of Online Harassment: Crowdsourced Terrorism
by Kevin VealeThis book argues that online harassment communities function as Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) where the collective goal is to ruin peoples’ lives. Framing these communities like ARGs highlights ways to limit their impact in the future, partly through offering people better ways to control their own safety online.The comparison also underlines the complicity of social networks in online harassment, since the communities use their designs as tools. Social networks know this, and need to work on minimizing the problem, or acknowledge that they are profiting through promoting abuse.
Gaming Sexism: Gender and Identity in the Era of Casual Video Games
by Amanda C. CoteInterviews with female gamers about structural sexism across the gaming landscapeWhen the Nintendo Wii was released in 2006, it ushered forward a new era of casual gaming in which video games appealed to not just the stereotypical hardcore male gamer, but also to a much broader, more diverse audience. However, the GamerGate controversy six years later, and other similar public incidents since, laid bare the internalized misogyny and gender stereotypes in the gaming community. Today, even as women make up nearly half of all gamers, sexist assumptions about the what and how of women’s gaming are more actively enforced.In Gaming Sexism, Amanda C. Cote explores the video game industry and its players to explain this contradiction, how it affects female gamers, and what it means in terms of power and gender equality. Across in-depth interviews with women-identified gamers, Cote delves into the conflict between diversification and resistance to understand their impact on gaming, both casual and “core” alike. From video game magazines to male reactions to female opponents, she explores the shifting expectations about who gamers are, perceived changes in gaming spaces, and the experiences of female gamers amidst this gendered turmoil. While Cote reveals extensive, persistent problems in gaming spaces, she also emphasizes the power of this motivated, marginalized audience, and draws on their experiences to explore how structural inequalities in gaming spaces can be overcome. Gaming Sexism is a well-timed investigation of equality, power, and control over the future of technology.
Gaming Representation: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Video Games
by Jennifer Malkowski Treaandrea M. RusswormRecent years have seen an increase in public attention to identity and representation in video games, including journalists and bloggers holding the digital game industry accountable for the discrimination routinely endured by female gamers, queer gamers, and gamers of color. Video game developers are responding to these critiques, but scholarly discussion of representation in games has lagged far behind. Gaming Representation examines portrayals of race, gender, and sexuality in a range of games, from casuals like Diner Dash, to indies like Journey and The Binding of Isaac, to mainstream games from the Grand Theft Auto, BioShock, Spec Ops, The Last of Us, and Max Payne franchises. Arguing that representation and identity function as systems in games that share a stronger connection to code and platforms than it may first appear, the contributors to this volume push gaming scholarship to new levels of inquiry, theorizing, and imagination.
Gaming Disability: Disability Perspectives on Contemporary Video Games (Routledge Research in Disability and Media Studies)
by Katie Ellis Tama Leaver Mike KentThis book explores the opportunities and challenges people with disabilities experience in the context of digital games from the perspective of three related areas: representation, access and inclusion, and community. Drawing on key concerns in disability media studies, the book brings together scholars from disability studies and game studies, alongside game developers, educators, and disability rights activists, to reflect upon the increasing visibility of disabled characters in digital games. Chapters explore the contemporary gaming environment as it relates to disability on platforms such as Twitch, Minecraft, and Tingyou, while also addressing future possibilities and pitfalls for people with disabilities within gaming given the rise of virtual reality applications, and augmented games such as Pokémon Go. The book asks how game developers can attempt to represent diverse abilities, taking games such as BlindSide and Overwatch as examples. A significant collection for scholars and students interested in the critical analysis of digital games, this volume will be of interest across several disciplines including game studies, game design and development, internet, visual, cultural, communication and media studies, as well as disability studies.
Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific (Routledge Studies in New Media and Cyberculture)
by Larissa Hjorth Dean ChanThis collection explores the relationship between digital gaming and its cultural context by focusing on the burgeoning Asia-Pacific region. Encompassing key locations for global gaming production and consumption such as Japan, China, and South Korea, as well as increasingly significant sites including Australia and Singapore, the region provides a wealth of divergent examples of the role of gaming as a socio-cultural phenomenon. Drawing from micro ethnographic studies of specific games and gaming locales to macro political economy analyses of techno-nationalisms and trans-cultural flows, this collection provides an interdisciplinary model for thinking through the politics of gaming production, representation, and consumption in the region.
Gaming Culture(s) in India: Digital Play in Everyday Life
by Aditya DeshbandhuThis volume critically analyzes the multiple lives of the "gamer" in India. It explores the "everyday" of the gaming life from the player’s perspective, not just to understand how the games are consumed but also to analyze how the gamer influences the products’ many (virtual) lives. Using an intensive ethnographic approach and in-depth interviews, this volume situates the practice of gaming under a broader umbrella of digital leisure activities and foregrounds the proliferation of gaming as a new media form and cultural artifact; critically questions the term gamer and the many debates surrounding the gamer tag to expand on how the gaming identity is constructed and expressed; details participants’ gaming habits, practices and contexts from a cultural perspective and analyzes the participants’ responses to emerging industry trends, reflections on playing practices and their relationships to friends, communities and networks in gaming spaces; and examines the offline and online spaces of gaming as sites of contestation between developers of games and the players. A holistic study covering one of the largest video game bases in the world, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of cultural studies, media and communication studies and science and technology studies, as well as be of great appeal to the general reader.
Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture
by Adrienne ShawVideo games have long been seen as the exclusive territory of young, heterosexual white males. In a media landscape dominated by such gamers, players who do not fit this mold, including women, people of color, and LGBT people, are often brutalized in forums and in public channels in online play. Discussion of representation of such groups in games has frequently been limited and cursory. In contrast, Gaming at the Edge builds on feminist, queer, and postcolonial theories of identity and draws on qualitative audience research methods to make sense of how representation comes to matter. In Gaming at the Edge, Adrienne Shaw argues that video game players experience race, gender, and sexuality concurrently. She asks: How do players identify with characters? How do they separate identification and interactivity? What is the role of fantasy in representation? What is the importance of understanding market logic? In addressing these questions Shaw reveals how representation comes to matter to participants and offers a perceptive consideration of the high stakes in politics of representation debates. Putting forth a framework for talking about representation, difference, and diversity in an era in which user-generated content, individualized media consumption, and the blurring of producer/consumer roles has lessened the utility of traditional models of media representation analysis, Shaw finds new insight on the edge of media consumption with the invisible, marginalized gamers who are surprising in both their numbers and their influence in mainstream gamer culture.
Gaming and the Divine: A New Systematic Theology of Video Games (Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies)
by Frank G. BosmanThis book formulates a new theological approach to the study of religion in gaming. Video games have become one of the most important cultural artifacts of modern society, both as mediators of cultural, social, and religious values and in terms of commercial success. This has led to a significant increase in the critical analysis of this relatively new medium, but theology as an academic discipline is noticeably behind the other humanities on this subject. The book first covers the fundamentals of cultural theology and video games. It then moves on to set out a Christian systematic theology of gaming, focusing on creational theology, Christology, anthropology, evil, moral theology, and thanatology. Each chapter introduces case studies from video games connected to the specific theme. In contrast to many studies which focus on online multiplayer games, the examples considered are largely single player games with distinct narratives and ‘end of game’ moments. The book concludes by synthesizing these themes into a new theology of video games. This study addresses a significant aspect of contemporary society that has yet to be discussed in any depth by theologians. It is, therefore, a fantastic resource for any scholar engaging with the religious aspects of digital and popular culture.
Gaming and Extremism: The Radicalization of Digital Playgrounds
by Linda Schlegel Rachel KowertCharting the increase in the use of games for the dissemination of extremist propaganda, radicalization, recruitment, and mobilization, this book examines the "gamification of extremism."Editors Linda Schlegel and Rachel Kowert bring together a range of insights from world-leading experts in the field to provide the first comprehensive overview of gaming and extremism. The potential nexus between gaming and extremism has become a key area of concern for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to prevent and counter radicalization and this book offers insights into key trends and debates, future directions, and potential prevention efforts. This includes the exploration of how games and game adjacent spaces, such as Discord, Twitch, Steam, and DLive, are being leveraged by extremists for the purposes of radicalization, recruitment, and mobilization. Additionally, the book presents the latest counterterrorism techniques, surveys promising preventing/countering violent extremism (P/CVE) measures currently being utilized in the gaming sphere, and examines the ongoing challenges, controversies, and current gaps in knowledge in the field.This text will be of interest to students and scholars of gaming and gaming culture, as well as an essential resource for researchers and practitioners working in prevention and counter-extremism, professionals working at gaming-related tech companies, and policymakers.The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Gamification of Life and the Gaming Society: The Ludic Century (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Fabian Arlt Hans-Jürgen ArltThis interesting book discusses why, as an activity, topic and metaphor, play and game have become an integral part of modern life. Empirically exemplary and theoretically grounded, this book discusses the developments and expansions in gaming, from easily accessible casual games to the galaxy-spanning gaming worlds of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). It shows how gaming has become a focal point of the entertainment industry, marked by boundless professionalization and monetization, especially in the realm of sports, and how games become global platforms for social networks, where players from all over the world meet in digital sandboxes. The combination of the virtual and the ludic creates hyperreal spaces in which people try out new forms of interaction, cooperation, and even brainstorming. The authors ask if this behavior has become the new way of life and the new normal, and if this heralds the ludic century. They take readers on a journey to understand the dynamics of today's gaming society, and base their observations and analyses on an original theory of play, which, in contrast to social normalcy, revolves around the allure and threats of the unexpected. This book is of interest to students and researchers of social science and communication studies, especially those working on the interface of AI and society.
The Gamification of Digital Journalism: Innovation in Journalistic Storytelling
by David O. DowlingThis book examines the brief yet accelerated evolution of newsgames, a genre that has emerged from puzzles, quizzes, and interactives augmenting digital journalism into full-fledged immersive video games from open-world designs to virtual reality experiences. Critics have raised questions about the credibility and ethics of transforming serious news stories of political consequence into entertainment media, and the risks of trivializing grave and catastrophic events into mere games. Dowling explores both the negatives of newsgames, and how the use of entertainment media forms and their narrative methods mainly associated with fiction can add new and potentially more powerful meaning to news than traditional formats allow. The book also explores how industrial and cultural shifts in the digital publishing industry have enabled newsgames to evolve in a manner that strengthens certain core principles of journalism, particularly advocacy on behalf of marginalized and oppressed groups. Cutting-edge and thoughtful, The Gamification of Digital Journalism is a must-read for scholars, researchers, and practitioners interested in multimedia journalism and immersive storytelling.
Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan
by Tamim AnsaryToday, most Westerners still see the war in Afghanistan as a contest between democracy and Islamist fanaticism. That war is real; but it sits atop an older struggle, between Kabul and the countryside, between order and chaos, between a modernist impulse to join the world and the pull of an older Afghanistan: a tribal universe of village republics permeated by Islam.<P><P> Now, Tamim Ansary draws on his Afghan background, Muslim roots, and Western and Afghan sources to explain history from the inside out, and to illuminate the long, internal struggle that the outside world has never fully understood. It is the story of a nation struggling to take form, a nation undermined by its own demons while, every 40 to 60 years, a great power crashes in and disrupts whatever progress has been made. Told in conversational, storytelling style, and focusing on key events and personalities, Games without Rules provides revelatory insight into a country at the center of political debate.
Games Without Frontiers?: Socio-historical Perspectives at the Gaming/Gambling Intersection (Leisure Studies in a Global Era)
by Heather WardleThis open access book focuses on how and why digital games and gambling are increasingly intertwined and asks “does this matter?” Looking at how “loot boxes” became the poster child for the convergence of gambling and gaming, Wardle traces how we got here. She argues that the intersection between gambling and gaming cultures has a long lineage, one that can be traced back throughout the 20th century but also incorporates more recent trends like the poker boom of the 1990s, the development of social media gambling products and the development of skin betting markets. Underpinned by changing technology, which facilitated new ways to bet, trade and play, the intersection between gaming and gambling cultures and products has accelerated within the last decade – and shows little signs of stopping. Wardle explores what this means for our understanding of risk, how gaming and gambling entities use each other for commercial advantage, and crucially explores what young people think of this, before making recommendations for action.
Games, Rhymes, and Wordplay of London Children
by N. G. KelseyThis book presents a unique annotated collection of some 2000 playground games, rhymes, and wordplay of London children. It charts continuity and development in childlore at a time of major social and cultural change and offers a detailed snapshot of changes in the traditions and language of young people. Topics include: starting a game; counting-out rhymes; games (without songs); singing and chanting games; clapping, skipping, and ball bouncing games; school rhymes and parodies; teasing and taunting; traditional belief and practice; traditional wordplay; and a concluding miscellany. Recorded mainly in the 1980s by primary schoolteacher Nigel Kelsey, transcribed verbatim from the children’s own words, and accompanied by extensive commentaries and annotation, the book sets a wealth of new information in the wider historical and contemporary context of existing studies in Britain, Ireland, and other parts of the English-speaking world. This valuable new resource will open new avenues for research and be of particular interest to folklorists and linguists, as well as to those working across the full spectrum of social, cultural, and educational studies.
Games of Property: Law, Race, Gender, and Faulkner's Go Down, Moses
by Thadious M. DavisIn Games of Property, distinguished critic Thadious M. Davis provides a dazzling new interpretation of William Faulkner's Go Down, Moses. Davis argues that in its unrelenting attention to issues related to the ownership of land and people, Go Down, Moses ranks among Faulkner's finest and most accomplished works. Bringing together law, social history, game theory, and feminist critiques, she shows that the book is unified by games--fox hunting, gambling with cards and dice, racing--and, like the law, games are rule-dependent forms of social control and commentary. She illuminates the dual focus in Go Down, Moses on property and ownership on the one hand and on masculine sport and social ritual on the other. Games of Property is a masterful contribution to understandings of Faulkner's fiction and the power and scope of property law.
The Games of Land Dispossession: Urban Governance and Sports Mega-Events (Marx, Engels, and Marxisms)
by Erick OmenaThis book offers a comparative study of state strategies in relation to urban redevelopment projects associated with sports mega-events in Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom. It examines urban governance strategies employed to dispossess working-class communities of their land and counteract the subsequent emergence of discontent in various national contexts, offering an intricate analysis of the mechanisms of class dominance operating across diverse regions of the globe. This is based on the application of Gramscian theory concerning the capitalist state and its fluid interplay between coercion and consent. Juxtaposing historical trajectories in the execution of redevelopment initiatives linked to large-scale sporting events, the book offers an in-depth examination of the state-civil society relations shaping the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Parks, alongside the regeneration initiatives concerning the Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro and the Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg – respectively earmarked for the 2014 and 2010 FIFA World Cups. Drawing on insights from a range of disciplines and an explicitly Gramscian analytical framework, this book will appeal to students and scholars in urban planning, sport sociology, development studies, and human geography.
Games of Empire
by Greig De Peuter Nick Dyer-WithefordIn the first decade of the twenty-first century, video games are an integral part of global media culture, rivaling Hollywood in revenue and influence. No longer confined to a subculture of adolescent males, video games today are played by adults around the world. At the same time, video games have become major sites of corporate exploitation and military recruitment.In Games of Empire, Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter offer a radical political critique of such video games and virtual environments as Second Life, World of Warcraft, and Grand Theft Auto, analyzing them as the exemplary media of Empire, the twenty-first-century hypercapitalist complex theorized by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. The authors trace the ascent of virtual gaming, assess its impact on creators and players alike, and delineate the relationships between games and reality, body and avatar, screen and street. Games of Empire forcefully connects video games to real-world concerns about globalization, militarism, and exploitation, from the horrors of African mines and Indian e-waste sites that underlie the entire industry, the role of labor in commercial game development, and the synergy between military simulation software and the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan exemplified by Full Spectrum Warrior to the substantial virtual economies surrounding World of Warcraft, the urban neoliberalism made playable in Grand Theft Auto, and the emergence of an alternative game culture through activist games and open-source game development.Rejecting both moral panic and glib enthusiasm, Games of Empire demonstrates how virtual games crystallize the cultural, political, and economic forces of global capital, while also providing a means of resisting them.
Games in the Platform Economy: Steam's Tangled Markets
by Anne Mette ThorhaugeThis book examines the evolution of digital platform economies through the lens of online gaming. Offering valuable empirical work on Valve’s ‘Steam’ platform, Thorhauge examines the architecture of this global online videogame marketplace and the way it enables new markets and economic transactions. Drawing on infrastructure, software, platform and game studies, the book interrogates the implications of these transactions, both in terms of their legality, but also in how they create new forms of immaterial labour. Shedding new light on a previously under-explored branch of the study of digital platforms, this book brings a unique economic sociology perspective into the growing literature on videogame studies.