Conference Report: Cultures of Video Game Concerns in a Comparative View: Report of a Two-Day Workshop

Authors

  • Estrid Sørensen Ruhr-Universität Bochum

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-17.2.2427

Keywords:

comparison, computer games, Denmark, difference, Germany, interdisciplinarity, matter of concern, media harm

Abstract

The same video games are played by young people all over the world. All over the world these games become matters of concern. Young people's involvement with video games is of concern to families, industry, science, and regulatory bodies. However, different dynamics play out in each country within and across these practices. Each practice and country finds different cultural, social, material and institutional ways of dealing with video games. The international workshop "Cultures of Video Game Concerns in International Comparison" sought to situate the concerns about video games and investigated the methods through which they play out in different contexts. The focus was on Denmark and Germany, but other international scholars also participated to add international perspectives. In addition to national comparisons the workshop compared video game concerns in the game industry, among youth and parents, in science, and in legal and regulatory contexts. The methodological focus on concerns proved highly productive for disrupting the usual stale discussions about the veracity of research on the effects of video games, and for understanding video game concerns as integral parts of the methods applied by scientists and non-scientists alike in their everyday attempt to meet the situated challenges that arise when dealing with video games.

URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1602179

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Author Biography

Estrid Sørensen, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Estrid SØRENSEN is professor for cultural psychology and anthropological knowledge at the Ruhr-University in Bochum, Germany. Her works lie at the intersection of cultural psychology and science & technology studies (STS). In 2009 she published the book "Materiality of Learning: Knowledge and Technology in Educational Practice" in which she suggests an STS approach to learning that takes the participation of materiality in everyday learning processes into account. She has furthermore worked extensively on the integration of posthumanist approaches in conceptualizations of human experience. As a part of this her current project inquires how video games in relation to children become entangled in practice and are experienced in so varied ways in different areas of contemporary society, and not the least how these differences are also connected.

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Published

2016-03-30

How to Cite

Sørensen, E. (2016). Conference Report: Cultures of Video Game Concerns in a Comparative View: Report of a Two-Day Workshop. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-17.2.2427

Issue

Section

FQS Conferences