A Precarious Game is an ethnographic examination of video game
production. The developers that Ergin Bulut researched for almost
three years in a medium-sized studio in the U.S. loved making video
games that millions play. Only some, however, can enjoy this dream
job, which can be precarious and alienating for many others. That
is, the passion of a predominantly white-male labor force relies on
material inequalities involving the sacrificial labor of their
families, unacknowledged work of precarious testers, and thousands
of racialized and gendered workers in the Global South. A
Precarious Game explores the politics of doing what one loves. In
the context of work, passion and love imply freedom, participation,
and choice, but in fact they accelerate self-exploitation and can
impose emotional toxicity on other workers by forcing them to work
endless hours. Bulut argues that such ludic discourses in the game
industry disguise the racialized and gendered inequalities on which
a profitable transnational industry thrives. Within capitalism,
work is not just an economic matter, and the political nature of
employment and love can still be undemocratic even when based on
mutual consent. As Bulut demonstrates, rather than considering work
simply as a matter of economics based on trade-offs in the
workplace, we should consider the question of work and love as one
of democracy rooted in politics.
General
Imprint: |
ILR Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
March 2020 |
Authors: |
Ergin Bulut
(Assistant Professor)
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 22mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
222 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-5017-4652-9 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-5017-4652-9 |
Barcode: |
9781501746529 |
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