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World of Warcraft rapidly became one of the most popular online world games on the planet, amassing 11.5 million subscribers—officially making it an online community of gamers that had more inhabitants than the state of Ohio and was almost twice as populous as Scotland. It's a massively multiplayer online game, or MMO in gamer jargon, where each person controls a single character inside a virtual world, interacting with other people's characters and computer-controlled monsters, quest-givers, and merchants. In My Life as a Night Elf Priest, Bonnie Nardi, a well-known ethnographer who has published extensively on how theories of what we do intersect with how we adopt and use technology, compiles more than three years of participatory research in Warcraft play and culture in the United States and China into this field study of player behavior and activity. She introduces us to her research strategy and the history, structure, and culture of Warcraft; argues for applying activity theory and theories of aesthetic experience to the study of gaming and play; and educates us on issues of gender, culture, and addiction as part of the play experience. Nardi paints a compelling portrait of what drives online gamers both in this country and in China, where she spent a month studying players in Internet cafes. Bonnie Nardi has given us a fresh look not only at World of Warcraft but at the field of game studies as a whole. One of the first in-depth studies of a game that has become an icon of digital culture, My Life as a Night Elf Priest will capture the interest of both the gamer and the ethnographer.

This review examines studies of the affordances of digital technologies that produce virtuality. What we can call a "technological turn" in the literature considers technology a first-order analytical object rather than blackboxing it or subsuming it under social process. J.J. Gibson's original concept of affordance is explained, as well as its evolution to a concept consonant with anthropology's concerns. The review probes studies of political activism, work, and play. It comments on how virtuality affects anthropology as a discipline.

Anthropological theories of population growth in underdeveloped countries are considered and it is argued that most studies have concentrated exclusively on either deterministic or self‐regulatory factors in population growth without regard to their probable interaction. A research strategy is proposed in which self‐regulatory factors, especially the decision‐making activities of individual parents, provide a primary focus of study but with careful attention to deterministic factors which constrain and influence the decision process. [population, underdevelopment, biology and self‐regulation in population theory]

Preface -- Prologue: an (untold) story of economy and computing -- Looking back -- Heteromation: a revised (his)story of computing -- The logic of accumulation : a story of political economy -- The dynamics of capitalist change : a story of resilience -- Possibilities and predicaments : a story of stimulus -- Varieties of heteromated labor -- Communicative labor : a story of connection -- Cognitive labor : a story of mental toil -- Creative labor : a story of mental magic -- Emotional labor : a story of caring -- Organizing labor : a story of commitment -- Looking ahead -- Mechanisms of participation : a story of rewards (and punishments) -- Governance of society : a story of "work" and institutional implosion -- Utopias : a story of revolution and reform -- Epilogue: a story of machines and us -- Notes -- References -- Index

AbstractThe current anxiety around the globe regarding automation and "the future of work", the irrelevance of human labour and the superfluity of humans is based on recurring ideas about technology, work and economic value. Not quite novel, the debate on these ideas dates back to prominent thinkers, such as Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. To grasp the present moment, therefore, the authors revisit this debate within the broader history of capitalism. With a focus on labour and technology, they bring attention to the hidden forms of value creation in the current economy and to the blind spots of the historical debate, and envision various possible scenarios for the future.

Part 6: Cultural Differences and Communication Technology ; International audience ; China's Internet censorship practices are sophisticated and pervasive. Academic research and media reports have examined the Chinese government's varied, expansive methods of censorship and Chinese citizens' techniques of subverting them, but little attention has been paid to understanding how Chinese citizens think about censorship in their everyday lives. We conducted a qualitative study of Chinese mainland citizens who circumvented censorship. We found seemingly contradictory attitudes and practices among our participants. They showed proficiency at bypassing censorship, but were sometimes comfortable with censored information. They were willing to share sensitive information with others, but saw the benefits of limiting the public's access to information under certain circumstances. We examine how the complex, nuanced attitudes toward censorship resonate with the classic teachings of Confucianism, China's traditional philosophical and ethical system.

This edited collection brings together leading academics in the field to explore the ways in which digital and non-digital artifacts shape how groups and collectives organize. It focuses on the idea of materiality and the interactions between the social and the technical in organizations, at work, and in technologies.

PurposeAn ensemble is an intermediate unit of work between action and activity in the hierarchical framework proposed by classical activity theory. Ensembles are the mid‐level of activity, offering more flexibility than objects, but more purposeful structure than actions. The paper aims to introduce the notion of ensembles to understand the way object‐related activities are instantiated in practice.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents an analysis of the practices of professional information workers in two different companies using direct and systematic observation of human behavior. It also provides an analysis and discussion of the activity theory literature and how it has been applied in areas such as human‐computer interaction and computer‐supported collaborative work.FindingsThe authors illustrate the relevance of the notion of ensembles for activity theory and suggest some benefits of this conceptualization for analyzing human work in areas such as human‐computer interaction and computer‐supported collaborative work.Research limitations/implicationsThe notion of ensembles can be useful for the development of a computing infrastructure oriented to more effectively supporting work activities.Originality/valueThe paper shows that the value of the notion of ensembles is to close a conceptual gulf not adequately addressed in activity theory, and to understand the practical aspects of the instantiation of objects over time.

Intro -- Preface -- Organization -- Contents -- Scientific Work and Data Practices -- A Comparative Study of Biological Scientists' Data Sharing Between Genome Sequence Data and Lab Experiment Data -- Abstract -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Literature Review -- 3 Theoretical Framework -- 4 Research Model and Hypothesis Development -- 5 Research Methods -- 6 Data Analysis and Results -- 6.1 Assessment of Measures -- 6.2 Hierarchical Regression Analysis -- 6.3 Independent Sample t-test -- 7 Discussion -- 8 Conclusion -- References -- Surfacing Data Change in Scientific Work -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Literature Review -- 3 Research Sites and Methods -- 4 Findings -- 4.1 Why Scientists Are Concerned About Data Change -- 4.2 Two Broad Types of Data Change -- 4.3 Trusting Collaborators and Processes to Make Datasets `Better' -- 4.4 Rhythms and Organizational Structures of Projects -- 5 Discussion and Conclusion -- References -- Understanding Hackathons for Science: Collaboration, Affordances, and Outcomes -- Abstract -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Background -- 3 Methods -- 3.1 The Setting: Two Hackathons at STScI -- 3.2 Data Collection and Analysis -- 4 Results -- 5 Discussion and Conclusion -- References -- Methodological Concerns in (Big) Data Research -- Modeling the Process of Information Encountering Based on the Analysis of Secondary Data -- Abstract -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Literature Review -- 2.1 Existing IE Process Models -- 2.2 CIT-Based IE Research -- 3 Data Collection -- 4 Data Analysis and Results -- 5 Discussion and Conclusions -- 5.1 The Value of the General IE Process Model -- 5.2 Limitations -- Acknowledgement -- Appendix -- References -- Methodological Transparency and Big Data: A Critical Comparative Analysis of Institutionalization -- Abstract -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Background -- 3 Methods -- 4 Discussion of Results.

Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- CHAPTER 1. WHY THIS HANDBOOK? -- 1.1 Beginnings -- 1.2 Why ethnographic methods and why virtual worlds? -- 1.3 Why a handbook? -- 1.4 An orientation to the virtual worlds we studied -- CHAPTER 2. THREE BRIEF HISTORIES -- 2.1 A brief history of ethnographic methods -- 2.2 A brief history of virtual worlds -- 2.3 A brief history of research on virtual world cultures -- 2.4 The uses of history -- CHAPTER 3. TEN MYTHS ABOUT ETHNOGRAPHY -- 3.1 Ethnography is unscientific -- 3.2 Ethnography is less valid than quantitative research -- 3.3 Ethnography is simply anecdotal -- 3.4 Ethnography is undermined by subjectivity -- 3.5 Ethnography is merely intuitive -- 3.6 Ethnography is writing about your personal experience -- 3.7 Ethnographers contaminate fieldsites by their very presence -- 3.8 Ethnography is the same as grounded theory -- 3.9 Ethnography is the same as ethnomethodology -- 3.10 Ethnography will become obsolete -- CHAPTER 4. RESEARCH DESIGN AND PREPARATION -- 4.1 Research questions: emergence, relevance, and personal interest -- 4.2 Selecting a group or activity to study -- 4.3 Scope of the fieldsite -- 4.4 Attending to offline contexts -- CHAPTER 5. PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION IN VIRTUAL WORLDS -- 5.1 Participant observation in context -- 5.2 Participant observation in practice -- 5.3 Preparing the researching self -- 5.4 Taking care in initiating relationships with informants -- 5.5 Making mistakes -- 5.6 Taking extensive fieldnotes -- 5.7 Keeping data organized -- 5.8 Participant observation and ethnographic knowledge -- 5.9 The timing and duration of participant observation -- 5.10 The experimenting attitude -- CHAPTER 6. INTERVIEWS AND VIRTUAL WORLDS RESEARCH -- 6.1 The value of interviews in ethnographic research -- 6.2 Effective interviewing