This thesis critically interrogates the role of local context in the adoption and interpretation of video technology and gaming practices in the little studied locale of India. Video gaming is a recent phenomenon in India which has been rapidly increasing in popularity, yet it has gained little academic attention in digital gaming research. The project seeks to understand the emergence of practices of consumption of video games in India from the point of view of Indians themselves through the exploration of how Indian video gamers situate, interpret and negotiate the practice of video game play. In his book Video Gamers (2012), Gary Crawford makes a case for analysing game play as a practice, situated within everyday experiences and social networks. Crawford identifies two deficiencies in gaming studies: the dominance of a Western-centric viewpoint and the disregard for player context. This research addresses these shortcomings in two ways. First, through situating the field research in Chandigarh. Second, by employing a mixed methods qualitative approach - observations, interviews, focus groups, field notes, pictures and video recordings – to elicit the detail of the gamers' cultural context. Situating these practices within the broader social, historical, geographical and cultural milieu allows for the conceptualisation of contextual factors in terms of their influence on the adoption and interpretation of the global gaming practice in a local setting. These methods allow for the examination of, first, multiple culturally embedded factors and, second, the players' processes of sense making applied to video gaming. Each method makes the social world of the gamers visible in different ways. Fieldwork predominantly took place in video gaming parlours. Investigating game players in the space of the video gaming parlour enabled a more honed understanding of how the practice of video gaming was ‘glocalised’ within particular social, geographical and cultural contexts. A smaller second study was conducted in Manchester, to collect data in a setting that is culturally different from India. This contrasting data provided greater sensitivity to cultural factors in India which might have otherwise been overlooked or which had been obscured. The research draws theoretically upon Bourdieu’s theories of social field, habitus, and capital, combining these with Goffman’s notions of dramaturgy and framing, and Robertson’s concept of glocalisation. These concepts provided a theoretical framework that enabled a interrogation of the data to reveal the sociocultural processes embedded in the gaming parlours, and the individual’s creative engagements with video game products themselves. The methodological and theoretical framework, then, were complementary, offering both an experiential and contextual approach. This study found that video gamers interpret and make sense of the practice of video gaming through their contextual situation, and that they will both consciously and unconsciously attempt to glocalise the practice of video gaming so that it becomes culturally more acceptable.

Esta investigación tiene como finalidad analizar la alta rotación del personal del área de Innovación Pedagógica de una Universidad Particular de Lima Metropolitana, y plantear un estudio de las prácticas de gestión de recursos humanos que puedan ayudar a retener al mejor talento humano. Asimismo, este estudio se realizó entre los años 2015 y 2017, con una duración aproximada de catorce meses. Es una investigación descriptiva, ya que se basa en la investigación y exposición en forma detallada de las características de las variables que se estudian. Se busca señalar y exponer los aspectos que afectan la permanencia del talento humano, teniendo en cuenta su variable dependiente prácticas de gestión de recursos humanos y la variable independiente retención del talento humano. Para efectos de una mejor precisión, se consideró utilizar el universo total de 36 colaboradores como muestra, la cual se eligió de forma no probabilística y está conformada por : 2 jefes de sección, 4 coordinadores, 2 secretarias y 28 asistentes. Para la obtención de resultados se utilizó la técnica de la encuesta, con un cuestionario como instrumento de medición, que consta de un total de 42 preguntas. Los resultados demuestran que las prácticas funcionales de la variable prácticas de gestión de recursos humanos se muestran debilitadas y en este estudio se sugiere se refuercen. En cuanto a la variable retención del talento humano muestra que se necesita una alta atención con respecto a la compensación y paga justa, en las condiciones de trabajo satisfactorias, en las políticas organizacionales y procedimientos que soportan la adquisición de recompensas y finalmente en el margen de beneficios. This research aims to analyze the high turnover of personnel in the area of Pedagogical Innovation of a Particular University in Lima, and to propose a study of human resources management practices that can help retain the best human talent. Also, this study was carried out between the years 2015 and 2016, with duration of approximately fourteen months. It’s a descriptive research, because it is based on the research and exposition in detail of the characteristics of the variables studied. The present research, seeks to point out and expose those aspects that affect the permanence of human talent, taking in consider two variables: Dependent variable: practices of human resources management and Independent variable: Human talent retention. For purposes of better precision, it was considered to use the total universe as a sample, which was chosen in a non-probabilistic way and is made up of a total of 36 collaborators: 2 section chiefs, 4 coordinators, 2 secretaries and 28 assistants. To obtain results, the survey technique was used, with a questionnaire as a measurement instrument, it consist of 42 questions. The results demonstrate that the functional practices of the variable: Human Resource Management practices are weakened and should be reinforced. Likewise, the variable: Human talent retention, shows high attention is needed to: fair compensation and payment, satisfactory working conditions, organizational policies and procedures that support the acquisition of rewards, in the profit margin.