Agency and labour in virtual worlds: the anthropology of doing culture

dc.contributor.authorEngelbrecht, Christian Herman
dc.date.accessioned2023-09-26T09:50:49Z
dc.date.available2023-09-26T09:50:49Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.descriptionA research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023
dc.description.abstractThis thesis provides a comparative analysis of the anthropology of virtual worlds and virtual world behaviour by providing a re-examination of the digital/real dichotomy and symbolic/interpretive anthropology. The thesis argues that virtual worlds are not found but created via the contingent relationship between virtual world designers and the agency and labour of users. Moreover, this thesis provides a rationale for the importance of studying virtual worlds from the ground up, that is, ethnographically, as the idea of what is real and what is not becomes muddled and unproductive when researchers observe the actuality of virtual world behaviour in virtual places within their own right. Lastly, this thesis suggests that future studies of virtual worlds should not rely on technologies that attempt to emulate a form of hyperrealism but should rather use cultures and the term doing culture in virtual worlds as the fundamental point of departure for understanding the project of being and becoming human.
dc.description.librarianPC(2023)
dc.facultyFaculty of Humanities
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/36070
dc.language.isoen
dc.titleAgency and labour in virtual worlds: the anthropology of doing culture
dc.typeDissertation

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