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30.9.12

Mobile Telephony in the Developing World Conference: Call for Panels and Papers


Mobile Telephony in the Developing World Conference


We invite papers for a conference on mobile telephony in developing countries in the University of Jyväskylä in Finland on May 24-25, 2013. Our aim is to explore how the rapid spread of mobile telephony in developing countries is associated with development, new media, society and culture. Keynote speakers will be Jonathan Donner, John Postill and Julie Soleil Archambault.


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14.9.12

MARGINALITY, MORALITY, MANHOOD AND MONEY



I'm about take off for Loutraki, Greece and the 9th European Conference on Gambling Studies and Policy Issues organized by EASG. I will present a paper drawing on my anthropologically-minded observations on online poker culture. Below is the abstract. Click here for the full paper.




MARGINALITY, MORALITY, MANHOOD AND MONEY

ANTHROPOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS OF 
ONLINE POKER AS A CULTURAL FORMATION

Abstract. Online poker is a new cultural phenomenon that has yet to attract the attention of anthropology, a discipline that is relatively slow in shifting its view from the non-Western Other to include the “Western Self” in its realm. However, there is promising movement within anthropology to study new media and its cultural formations, a trend that could also lead to online gambling to be one of its emerging (albeit not anytime soon mainstream) subfields. There are many interesting paths modern anthropology with its ethnographic, qualitative and interpretative approach could follow in studying online poker, a parade example of online gambling culture. In this presentation some key observations from the presenter’s research will be discussed in the form of four promising anthropological themes of online poker. They are the four M’s: marginality, morality, manhood and money. These intertwined themes seem to be inherently and essentially connected to the phenomenon and cultural interpretation framework of online poker, and force the members of the (sub)culture to negotiate their position in relation to them. The four M’s of online poker will be discussed with the help of presenter’s research material including media texts (magazine articles, ads), participant observation and interviews.




Image source: EASG website.