Browsing by Author "Pelkonen, Esa"

The objective of this research was to find out what kind of social practices digital gaming contains, and that how do these practices improve youth involvement. Existing literature handles different participatory appearances of gaming culture, but there is a lack of study where social practices of digital gaming would be scrutinized in the framework of involvement. Therefore this study aims to work as a synthesis, where the social practices of digital gaming are being viewed through the lenses of involvement-theory. This thesis was methodically carried out by descriptive literature review, that contained two main theory-pieces; involvement and the practices of digital gaming. Sources in this thesis are mainly finnish, but there is also international literature that is being cited to – especially in the part of digital gaming practices. My aim in this descriptive literature review is to produce a new standpoint towards the phenomenon that is being scrutinized. The findings of this study indicated that my presumption about the social practices of digital gaming as a way to improve youth involvement holds true; there were features of improving involvement in every nexus of the gaming practices. Different forms of identity-work, collaboration, ways to point out capability and marking trail were emphasized in the nexus of social practices where one participates into the gaming situation by playing or watching. Governing gaming avocations is, on the other hand, a practice-nexus, where commonality and especially different ways of affecting and being impressed are highlighted. The last nexus, where social practices of gaming culture outside the gaming situation are being examined is found to be an area that produces communality, life importance, different ways of affecting and local involvement.