Coming of age in Second Life : an anthropologist explores the virtually human / Tom Boellstorff ; with a new preface by the author.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boellstorff, Tom, 1969- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Virtual reality.

Second Life (Game).

Internet.

Ethnology--Fieldwork.

Ethnology--Computer network resources.

Ethnology.

Ethnology--Interactive multimedia.

Genre:

Interactive multimedia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (349 p.)

Edition:

New paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Millions of people around the world today spend portions of their lives in online virtual worlds. Second Life is one of the largest of these virtual worlds. The residents of Second Life create communities, buy property and build homes, go to concerts, meet in bars, attend weddings and religious services, buy and sell virtual goods and services, find friendship, fall in love--the possibilities are endless, and all encountered through a computer screen. At the time of its initial publication in 2008, Coming of Age in Second Life was the first book of anthropology to examine this thriving alternate universe. Tom Boellstorff conducted more than two years of fieldwork in Second Life, living among and observing its residents in exactly the same way anthropologists traditionally have done to learn about cultures and social groups in the so-called real world. He conducted his research as the avatar "Tom Bukowski," and applied the rigorous methods of anthropology to study many facets of this new frontier of human life, including issues of gender, race, sex, money, conflict and antisocial behavior, the construction of place and time, and the interplay of self and group.Coming of Age in Second Life shows how virtual worlds can change ideas about identity and society. Bringing anthropology into territory never before studied, this book demonstrates that in some ways humans have always been virtual, and that virtual worlds in all their rich complexity build upon a human capacity for culture that is as old as humanity itself. Now with a new preface in which the author places his book in light of the most recent transformations in online culture, Coming of Age in Second Life remains the classic ethnography of virtual worlds.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface to the New Paperback Edition

Acknowledgments

PART I: Setting the Virtual Stage

Chapter 1. The Subject and Scope of This Inquiry

Chapter 2. History

Chapter 3. Method

Part II: Culture in a Virtual World

Chapter 4. Place and Time

Chapter 5. Personhood

Chapter 6. Intimacy

Chapter 7. Community

Part III: The Age of Techne

Chapter 8. Political Economy

Chapter 9. The Virtual

Glossary

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

"Preface to the new paperback edition": pages [xi]-xxvii.

Part 1. Setting the virtual stage : 1. The subject and scope of this inquiry : Arrivals and departures ; Everyday Second Life ; Terms of discussion ; The emergence of virtual worlds ; The posthuman and the human ; What this, a book, does -- 2. History : Prehistories of the virtual ; Histories of virtual technology ; A personal virtual history ; Histories of virtual worlds ; Histories of cybersociality research ; Techne -- 3. Method : Virtual worlds in their own terms ; Anthropology and ethnography ; Participant observation ; Interviews, focus groups, and beyond the platform ; Ethics ; Claims and reflexivity -- Part II. culture in a virtual world : 4. Place and time : Visuality and land ; Builds and objects ; Lag ; Afk ; Immersion ; Presence -- 5. Personhood : The self ; The life course ; Avatars and alts ; Embodiment ; Gender and race ; Agency -- 6. Intimacy : Language ; Friendship ; Sexuality ; Love ; Family ; Addiction -- 7. Community : The event ; The group ; Kindness ; Griefing ; Between virtual worlds ; Beyond virtual worlds. Part III. The age of techne : 8. Political economy : Creationist capitalism ; Money and labor ; Property ; Governance ; Inequality ; Platform and social form : 9. The virtual : The virtual human ; Culture and the online ; Simulation ; Fiction and design ; The massively multiple ; Toward an anthropology of virtual worlds -- Glossary.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-301) and index.

Honorable Mention, 2008 PROSE Award for Excellence in Media and Cultural Studies, Association of American Publishers.

Winner of the 2009 Dorothy Lee Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Culture, Media Ecology Association.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9781400874101

1400874106

OCLC:

914151388