3rd International Sociological Association Forum of Sociology
Vienna (Austria) 10-17 July 2016
Research Committee on Sociology of Leisure, RC13
Regular session of 20-minute presentations
Panel organized by Dr. Pascaline Lorentz
The Sociology of Video Gaming
Video games are today depicted as an evident leisure activity. Yet, the legitimization of this hobby has undertaken a chaotic track. Playing video games has, in fact, transformed from a marginal and isolated activity to a global and mainstream pastime. A few countries have sparked national surveys about video gaming and its role in their societies. For instance, the Entertainment Software Association (and ESAC for Canada) annually provides reports about North American players. Knowledge about Europe is further brought by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe. On the other side of the world–in Australia and New Zealand—the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association orders national surveys every two years.
What about other regions of the world? What about China, India, South America, Africa, and the Middle East? What does playing video games in Russia and the Caucasian regions look like? And what about the evolutions of video gaming in each country overtime? What happened since the first surveys?
While the scholarship on video gaming concentrates on specific issues (violence, addiction, well-being, gamification, etc.) or particular titles (World of Warcraft, GTA, etc.), this panel aims to gather sociologists in order to identify the similarities and differences in this leisure around the globe.
Geographically-centered associations of video game researchers are mushrooming to form bands of experts. Their regional conferences miss the opportunity to unite on a worldwide scale. By getting sociologists from every corner of the world together, the ISA Forum 2016 proffers a meeting ground where to discuss and debate global video gaming. Hence, this panel in Sociology of Leisure accommodates a table around which all experts can break bread and share their researches.
The abstract (300 words) must be submitted in English or in French at http://www.isa-sociology.org/forum-2016/ before September 30, 2015
If you have any questions about your submission, please contact me at pascaline.lorentz@gmail.com
Feel free to spread this call for papers to anyone who might be interested. Thank you! I am eager to read all your propositions!
Pascaline Lorentz, PhD in Sociology
Masaryk University, the Czech Republic
Panel is organized by Dr. Pascaline Lorentz who holds a PhD in Sociology from the Université de Strasbourg in France. Her doctoral research investigated the teenage audience of the popular video game The Sims®. Part of her findings were translated into English and published in a monograph, The Socializing Voyage of the Video Game Player, freely available for download.
Granted with an ENDEAVOUR Research Fellowship in 2011 Pascaline undertook a study documenting the social environment of an intense practice of virtual world attachments in Australia.
In 2013, she worked with Professor Jeffrey Brand at Bond University, Australia on Digital Australia 14 and Digital New Zealand 14. In 2015, she was the main editor of the book, Living in the Digital Age: Self-Presentation, Networking, Playing, and Participating in Politics while working as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Family at Masaryk University.
