From pathological to professional: gambling stories
Journal Title: Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology - Year 2011, Vol 2, Issue 2
Abstract
Theories on gambling are as disparate as they are diverse. While on the one hand gambling is condemned as being pathological, a curable addiction, on the other it is regarded as merely leisure. While playing on the exterior features of gambling, these two perspectives narrow the vistas of gambling research. I contribute to the debate by treating gambling (poker playing in particular) through the meaning conveyed by players upon it, discussing games and play as part and parcel of everyday experience. My research is centered on how poker players make professional claims and the way they justify poker playing as a profession. By discussing games as world building practices (Schutz, 1945; Huizinga, 1950; Goffman, 1961) I deemphasize the deviant character gambling actuates and advert on its informative potential on emergent societal and cultural transformations. Making a living out of poker, making sense of the game, at the same time, as a lens that organizes their way of going through the world, players connect the reality of the world of daily life to the reality of the game. I argue that the horizons of this finite province of meaning (Schutz, 1945) are not confined to the world of poker, but communicate extensively with the wider reality through its characteristics, from its unique time structure and the pervasive identities created in the game, to the money players circulate.
Authors and Affiliations
Andrada-Mihaela Istrate
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP40946
- DOI -
- Views 240
- Downloads 0
Hermeneutics of reason: the principle of common rationality as premise of understanding the Other(s)
The central argument defended in this paper is made up of two interconnected statements: i) that a minimally defined rationality is an anthropological constant, being shared by all conceivable human cultures; and ii) t...
The watermelon
This semi-fictional short story departs from the epistemological premise that knowledge on feelings should be explored in the complex accumulation of people's transformative lives and locates these experiences in a dyn...
Advancement of human rights standards for LGBT people through the perspective of international human rights law
The article addresses the issue how various religious and legal systems cope with current developments that undermine binary opposition of man and woman including definition of their sexual and cultural identities. Mor...
Ageing well? A cross-country analysis of the way older people are visually represented on websites of organizations for older people
The ‘aging well’ discourse advances the idea of making older people responsible for their capability to stay healthy and active. In the context of an increased ageing population, which poses several challenges to count...
Carl Christian von Weizsäcker, 2011, Homo Oeconomicus Adaptivus
“Homo Oeconomicus Adaptivus” is the title under which between 17th and 20th October 2011 the prestigious professor Carl Christian von Weizsäcker2 held a series of four lectures in the Graz Schumpeter Lectures3. Since...