Submission Title
Where Isn't the Action?
Session Title
Session 2-2-D: Ethics and Gambling Development
Presentation Type
Event
Location
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada
Start Date
29-5-2019 11:00 AM
End Date
29-5-2019 12:25 PM
Disciplines
Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance | Social Psychology and Interaction | Sociology of Culture
Abstract
This paper responds to the suggestion by Dmitri Shalin (2016) that the “momentous changes that have transformed the entertainment and gaming industry call for further investigation into the evolving status of fateful action.” Where Erving Goffman stated that “gambling is the prototype of action,” he did not distinguish among types of gambling or their characterological implications. Since Goffman’s time, gambling in various forms has become ubiquitous and embedded into everyday life. As such, this embeddedness suggests not only the widespread availability of action, but that what Goffman referred to as “character” needs to be rethought for these changed conditions. Further, the paper will take up the availability and pursuit of action in other domains of life, particularly insofar as late modern life has been shaped by various effects of financialization.
Shalin, Dmitri N. 2106. “Erving Goffman, Fateful Action, and the Las Vegas Gambling Scene,” UNLV Gaming Research and Review April 20 (1): 1-38
Keywords
action, gambling, character, Goffman, risk, late modernity
Funding Sources
I will be requesting funding for an International Travel Grant from Trent University. The funding body has no involvement with any aspect of the research.
Competing Interests
No competing interests.
Where Isn't the Action?
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada
This paper responds to the suggestion by Dmitri Shalin (2016) that the “momentous changes that have transformed the entertainment and gaming industry call for further investigation into the evolving status of fateful action.” Where Erving Goffman stated that “gambling is the prototype of action,” he did not distinguish among types of gambling or their characterological implications. Since Goffman’s time, gambling in various forms has become ubiquitous and embedded into everyday life. As such, this embeddedness suggests not only the widespread availability of action, but that what Goffman referred to as “character” needs to be rethought for these changed conditions. Further, the paper will take up the availability and pursuit of action in other domains of life, particularly insofar as late modern life has been shaped by various effects of financialization.
Shalin, Dmitri N. 2106. “Erving Goffman, Fateful Action, and the Las Vegas Gambling Scene,” UNLV Gaming Research and Review April 20 (1): 1-38