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Julia Mühlhaus, Onno Bouwmeester and Svetlana N. Khapova
This study seeks to explore the key themes in identity play during unemployment and the potential obstacles faced by unemployed individuals.
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to explore the key themes in identity play during unemployment and the potential obstacles faced by unemployed individuals.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study is based on 23 interviews with unemployed individuals in Germany.
Findings
The authors identify three obstacles to identity play during unemployment: a lack of psychological safety to explore possible selves, a lack of opportunity to try out possible selves and a lack of social validation for possible selves. Several interviewees highlight the impact of social context, creating an absence of institutional support and a limited identity “playspace.” As such, the authors illustrate that when faced with these obstacles, the unemployed individuals of this study predominantly focus on identity work instead of identity play. Only a few interviewees seem to engage in and sustain identity play. The authors propose that the elaborate nature of their possible selves and their focus on future opportunities may overshadow the present self and immediate obstacles.
Originality/value
The authors argue that identity play is not readily available to all individuals in all situations. Instead, they suggest that some psychologically and socially threatening contexts such as unemployment are characterized by obstacles that constrain individuals' identity play and prevent the adoption of new work identities. Hence, the authors call for a more balanced and localized understanding of identity play.
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Gabriela Walker and Jeni Venker Weidenbenner
Empathy is part of what makes us human and humane, and it has become a core component of the Social Awareness competency of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) (CASEL, 2019). SEL…
Abstract
Purpose
Empathy is part of what makes us human and humane, and it has become a core component of the Social Awareness competency of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) (CASEL, 2019). SEL fosters the understanding of others’ emotions, is the basis of Theory of Mind skills and frames the development of empathy. The purpose of this paper is to trace the links between empathy development and social and emotional learning when using real versus virtual environments. Empathy is a uniquely human emotion facilitated by abstract thinking and language. Virtual play is a teaching tool for acquiring prosocial behaviors. And finally, human-mediated (traditional and virtual) play is most favorable for SEL growth. Recognition of emotions such as empathy and other socio-communication skills have been taught to children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Therefore, technology can be a venue for acquiring empathy.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a qualitative interpretive methodology to advocate for the use of technology with human mediation to teach Social and Emotional Learning skills, based on the premise that cognitive and social-emotional development occurs synergistically and mediated by speech and interaction with the environment.
Findings
Technology is best seen as an instrument of assessing and teaching socio-emotional skills, but not as the only means to an end, because what makes us human can only be taught within an ecology of human interaction in real-life situations.
Originality/value
This paper reviews previous research works (both empirical and theoretical) that bring to light the connection between socio-emotional development, specifically empathy development, and virtual environments.
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Babak Ghaempanah and Svetlana N. Khapova
The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of identity play process by including the stories we live by in depth. Over the past decade, identity play literature has…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of identity play process by including the stories we live by in depth. Over the past decade, identity play literature has placed more emphasis on the role of self-narratives. Yet, the “stories we live by”, including the told or untold stories of past and imagined events of the future, have not been considered in depth in these self-narratives.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper draws on the personal construct theory, narrative identity and constructivist psychotherapy literatures and attempts to include the stories we live by in scholarly conceptualizations and explorations of identity play processes.
Findings
Drawing on the personal construct theory, narrative identity and constructivist psychotherapy literatures this paper offers a comprehensive conceptual model of how the stories we live by infuse individual identity construction processes. The model highlights the inter-connectivity among stories we live by, identity play, identity work, sensemaking and social validation. Looking through the lens of the personal construct theory and taking these inter-connectivities into account lead to the observation of temporality in identity construction and the plurivocality of self-narratives.
Originality/value
This paper looks at identity play through the lens of the personal construct theory. However, self-narratives are seen as a medium for manifestation of personal constructs. Thus, this paper also draws on the narrative identity literature and dialogical-self concept, which helps access the multiplicity of the self-narratives to widen our grasp of personal constructs. This paper combines discourse of deconstruction with the dialogical-self concept and provides more means for the explication of identity play.
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Søren Kristiansen, Maria Camilla Trabjerg, Nanna Reventlov Lauth and Anders Malling
The study aims to explore the types of simulated games and gambling platforms used by adolescents, adolescent’s experiences, motivations and behaviors vis-à-vis simulated gambling…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to explore the types of simulated games and gambling platforms used by adolescents, adolescent’s experiences, motivations and behaviors vis-à-vis simulated gambling and the potential interrelationships between simulated and monetary forms gambling.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was obtained from a qualitative longitudinal panel study with three waves of individual interviews. A cohort of 51 young Danes, with varying levels of gambling involvement, were interviewed three times, with a 10-12 frequency from 2011 to 2014. In total, 149 interviews were conducted over the 4-year period.
Findings
Enjoying social interactional effects appeared to be the main reasons young people engage in simulated gambling games. The study documented characteristics of both a catalyst pathway and a containment pathway emphasizing that for some young people simulated gambling may increase the likelihood of involvement in real money gambling while it may decrease it for others.
Research limitations/implications
The sample was relatively limited and it involved participants from only one of the five Danish regions. The sample reflects the culture, rural/urban configuration and gambling market of a specific geographic region.
Practical implications
Some forms of simulated digital gambling may provide players with excitement and unrealistic conceptions of winning chances, which, in turn, may encourage participation in real forms of gambling. This may call for regulatory policies aiming at the structural features of simulated gambling products and their rapid global spread. Consumer campaigns aimed at both young people themselves and their parents may be considered.
Originality/value
Few studies have provided insights into the meanings and motivations of young people engaged in simulated gambling. The current study is among the first to explore adolescent’s experiences, motivations and behaviors vis-à-vis simulated gambling and the potential interrelationships between simulated and monetary forms gambling.
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André Luiz Maranhão de Souza-Leão, Bruno Melo Moura, Walber Kaíc da Silva Nunes, Vitor de Moura Rosa Henrique and Italo Rogerio Correia de Santana
Fans are proactive consumers of pop culture products, who can be seen as prosumers. Fanvideo production is one of their most widespread practices in the participatory culture…
Abstract
Purpose
Fans are proactive consumers of pop culture products, who can be seen as prosumers. Fanvideo production is one of their most widespread practices in the participatory culture scenario. Thus, the aim of the present study is to analyze how ludic prosumption is featured on plays performed in Brazilian fanvideos based on successful pop culture franchises.
Design/methodology/approach
Research based on the interpretive content analysis of fanvideos of plays produced by Brazilian fans based on five emblematic pop culture franchises and published on YouTube.
Findings
Results have shown six play types in the analyzed fanvideos – i.e. child's play, performing powers, cosplay, play in social rites, teaching to play and “zuêra” –, which revealed a way of having fun in different situations through different practices based on ludic consumption experiences in different spheres of social life.
Originality/value
CCT-based studies focused on investigating plays as ludic consumption phenomenon, as well as fan culture, remain at early research stage. Thus, the main contribution of the present study lies on associating such concepts based on the concept of prosumption.
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Samuli Laato, Bastian Kordyaka, A.K.M. Najmul Islam, Konstantinos Papangelis and Juho Hamari
Location-based games (LBGs) have afforded novel information technology (IT) developments in how people interact with the physical world. Namely, LBGs have spurred a wave of…
Abstract
Purpose
Location-based games (LBGs) have afforded novel information technology (IT) developments in how people interact with the physical world. Namely, LBGs have spurred a wave of territoriality (i.e. controlling) and exploration (i.e. discovering) of augmented physical space that are driven by different social dynamics related to group formation, social connectivity and altruism. The aim of this study is to investigate this dynamic and how it is further related to the use intensity of location-based IT.
Design/methodology/approach
This work presents a structural equation model that connects social dimensions of play to territorial control and exploration, and playing intensity. The model was tested with psychometric data gathered from a global sample of Pokémon GO players (N = 515).
Findings
In the tested sample, players' social self-efficacy and altruism were positively associated with team identification. Team identification, in turn, was positively associated with both territorial control and exploration tendency. Territorial control had a significant relationship with playing intensity; however, exploration tendency did not. This implies territorial control is the stronger predictor of playing intensity.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that human primal urges to conquer and control geographical territory may surface in the digital reimagination of physical space. LBGs offer opportunities for making use of new forms of play (territorial control and exploration) in motivating locative behaviours.
Originality/value
This research quantifies the relationships between a social predisposition, team identification, territorial control, exploration tendency and playing intensity in the context of Pokémon GO. It contributes new knowledge to the understanding of territorial behaviour (control and exploration) in location-based IT.
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