Thirteen previously published essays, notes, and interviews, by Olu Oguibe, with revisions, with an additional list of where the contributions were originally published and a cumulative index for this anthology as a whole.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Culture in Early Modern England is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary examination of current research on popular culture in the early modern era. For the first time a detailed yet wide-ranging consideration of the breadth and scope of early modern popular culture in England is collected in one volume, highlighting the interplay of 'low' and 'high' modes of cultural production (while also questioning the validity of such terminology). The authors examine how popular culture impacted upon people's everyday lives during the period, helping to define how individuals and groups experienced the world. Issues as disparate as popular reading cultures, games, food and drink, time, textiles, religious belief and superstition, and the function of festivals and rituals are discussed. This research companion will be an essential resource for scholars and students of early modern history and culture.

Understanding Video Games is a crucial guide for newcomers to video game studies and experienced game scholars alike. This revised and updated third edition of the pioneering text provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of game studies, and highlights changes in the gaming industry, advances in video game scholarship, and recent trends in game design and development—including mobile, casual, educational, and indie gaming. In the third edition of this textbook, students will: Learn the major theories and schools of thought used to study games, including ludology and narratology; Understand the commercial and organizational aspects of the game industry; Trace the history of games, from the board games of ancient Egypt to the rise of mobile gaming; Explore the aesthetics of game design, including rules, graphics, audio, and time; Analyze the narrative strategies and genre approaches used in video games; Consider the debate surrounding the effects of violent video games and the impact of "serious games." Featuring discussion questions, recommended games, a glossary of key terms, and an interactive online video game history timeline, Understanding Video Games provides a valuable resource for anyone interested in examining the ways video games are reshaping entertainment and society.

Games of History provides an understanding of how games as artefacts, textual and visual sources on games and gaming as a pastime or a “serious” activity can be used as sources for the study of history. From the vast world of games, the book’s focus is on board and card games, with reference to physical games, sports and digital games as well. Considering culture, society, politics and metaphysics, the author uses examples from various places around the world and from ancient times to the present to demonstrate how games and gaming can offer the historian an alternative, often very valuable and sometimes unique path to the past. The book offers a thorough discussion of conceptual and material approaches to games as sources, while also providing the reader with a theoretical starting point for further study within specific thematic chapters. The book concludes with three case studies of different types of games and how they can be considered as historical sources: the gladiatorial games, chess and the digital game Civilization. Offering an alternative approach to the study of history through its focus on games and gaming as historical sources, this is the ideal volume for students considering different types of sources and how they can be used for historical study, as well as students who study games as primary or secondary sources in their history projects.

This collection of essays on cognition, which involves continental as much as analytical approaches, attempts to observe cognitive processes in three areas: in culture, in nature, and in an area that can – at least from some point of view – be perceived as an “in-between” of culture and nature: memes. All authors introduce a certain dynamic input in cognitive theory, as they negotiate between the empirical and the conceptual, or between epistemology and the study of culture. In all chapters, culture, nature, and memes turn out to be dynamic in the sense of being non-essentialist, their significations and modulating functions always being multi-dimensional. The chapters shed new light on classical themes of cognitive theory as: ‘problems of creation, generation and emergence,’ ‘animals’ thoughts and beliefs,’ ‘minds and computing,’ ‘knowledge and its social dimension,’ ‘thoughts and emotions,’ ‘the innate state of lexical concepts’ and ‘memetics and stylistics.’

This book considers different stages of Kurdish history, oppression, and genocide through a critical lens, offering an historiography of Iraq and colonialism. Divided into two parts, the first part conceptualizes the coined term “genocide culture” and examines dominant Iraqi cultural practices that fostered genocide. The second part contextualizes the experiences of the Kurdish community to examine the effects of cultural practices and the role of “civilian actors” in fueling the extermination of targeted groups. Through semi-structured interviews, primary archival documents, and nonparticipant observation, the author studies the links between everyday cultural practices and microaggression in general and the nexus between the state and the general population in the implementation of macroaggression and genocide. The audience will include scholars and students interested in genocide studies and the relation of both genocide and culture to histories of colonialism, as well as those working in the fields of violence and cultural psychology, sociology, history, international relations, ethnic conflict, and Middle Eastern studies.

The revised third edition of the text that combines classical and contemporary theories of sociological theory Thoroughly revised and updated, the third edition of an Introduction to Sociological Theory offers an in-depth introduction to classical and contemporary theories, and demonstrates their relevance to offer a clear understanding of a broad range of contemporary issues and topics. As with the previous editions, the text continues to combine carefully selected primary quotations from a broad range of theorists with extensive discussion and illustrative examples from a diverse range of countries, helpful timelines of important and thematically relevant events, biographical notes, contemporary topic boxes, analytical photos, and chapter glossaries. The text addresses topics such as the persistence of economic and social inequality, Brexit, post-truth society, same-sex marriage, digital surveillance and the on-demand gig economy. Written in an engaging style, Introduction to Sociological Theory offers a comprehensive introduction to the pluralistic breadth and wide-ranging applicability of sociological theory. This updated edition of the authoritative text: Contains both classical and contemporary theories in a single text Builds on excerpts from original theoretical writings with detailed discussion of the concepts and ideas under review Includes new examples of current empirical topics such as Brexit, Donald Trump’s presidency, China’s growing economic power, global warming, intersectionality, social media, and much more Offers additional resources including a website that contains multiple choice and essay questions, a thoroughly refreshed set of PowerPoint slides for each chapter with multimedia links to content illustrative of sociological processes, a list of complementary primary readings, a quotation bank, and other background materials Written for undergraduate courses in contemporary and classical sociological theory, the third edition of an Introduction to Sociological Theory continues to provide a comprehensive, in-depth, and empirically engaging, introduction to sociological theory.

Free-to-play (F2P) games have been recently taking the market by the storm, proving to be both popular among users and developers. Delivering the core experience for free and functional or decorative benefits within the game for a small price (microtransactions), can these games really be labelled free? This research explores the costs involved in playing or taking part in free-to-play game communities through an 18-month virtual ethnography. Using a specific F2P browser game which is developed and published in Germany as a case example, interviews are conducted with professionals from the game company, as well as players of the game to explore the influence the payment model has on the various aspects of the game culture. Utilizing the circuit of culture (du Gay et al., 1997) as a theoretical framework, the research empirically explores all the contexts of the game culture in question, from official and non-official game content production and regulation, to appropriation and identification by members of the culture and the representation of themes within the game and of the game within media and public discourse.

An impassioned look at games and game design that offers the most ambitious framework for understanding them to date. As pop culture, games are as important as film or television—but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary. In Rules of Play Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field. They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games, from board games and sports to computer and video games. As active participants in game culture, the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovation, filled with new concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games. Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts like "play," "design," and "interactivity." They look at games through a series of eighteen "game design schemas," or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of emergence and information, as contexts for social play, as a storytelling medium, and as sites of cultural resistance. Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and theoretical guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.

A definitive guide to contemporary video game studies, this second edition has been fully revised and updated to address the ongoing theoretical and methodological development of game studies. Expertly compiled by well-known video game scholars Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, the Companion includes comprehensive and interdisciplinary models and approaches for analyzing video games, new perspectives on video games both as an art form and cultural phenomenon, explorations of the technical and creative dimensions of video games, and accounts of the political, social, and cultural dynamics of video games. Brand new to this second edition are chapters examining topics such as preservation; augmented, mixed, and virtual reality; eSports; disability; diversity; and identity, as well as a new section that specifically examines the industrial aspects of video games including digital distribution, game labor, triple-A games, indie games, and globalization. Each essay provides a lively and succinct summary of its target area, quickly bringing the reader up-to-date on the pertinent issues surrounding each aspect of the field, including references for further reading. A comprehensive overview of the present state of video game studies that will undoubtedly prove invaluable to students, scholars, and game designers alike.