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Coming of Age in Second Life
An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human
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Coming of Age in Second Life
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This book is ideal for readers interested in anthropology, digital culture, sociology, and virtual worlds. It suits academics, students, and anyone curious about how virtual environments shape human interaction and identity.
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, fin
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
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Description
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, and 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 behaviour, 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.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Winner of the 2009 Dorothy Lee Award and honoured with the 2008 PROSE Award Honorable Mention, Coming of Age in Second Life is praised for its groundbreaking approach. David Robson of Nature commends Boellstorff’s analysis of the intersection between virtual and physical identities, calling it a lasting and important study. The book is celebrated for making a previously obscure world accessible and for setting a benchmark in virtual anthropology research.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780691168340
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 25 August 2015
Country: United States
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Edition: Revised edition
Illustration: 24 halftones.
Contributors:
- Preface by Tom Boellstorff
Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 156.0mm
Height: 235.0mm
Weight: 510g
Pages: 348
About the Author
Tom Boellstorff is professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. He is the coauthor of Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method (Princeton), and coeditor of Data, Now Bigger and Better!
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