In the wake of recent discourses growing around metaphors like globalization and information age, information society, information and communication technologies move into cyber anthropology's focus. Although online games and online gaming communities are not new, the rising interest in online games and the number of people playing online games means that such games and the corresponding communities that seem to evolve out of then have potential to be fertile ground for social researchers. One particularly useful method is that of virtual ethnographies, or participant observation in the game itself. Through an ethnographical research of the Lord of the Rings Online and an online gaming community that has emerged within this game, this work attempts outline the process of virtual ethnography that combines emic and etic methods of data gathering adapted to the virtual context to provide a ‘true’ accounting of the social constructs inherent in the virtual world. Massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are present for almost a decade now, but they have become significantly popular only over the past through years. During the past 6 years the MMORPG turned into a thriving cultural phenomenon with over 20 million people daily involved in various social interactions. MMORPGs provide a unique space for social interaction as players no longer share the same physical environment and the non-verbal communication in no longer available. In such games players also are no... [to full text] / Pastaruoju metu vis dažnesnis diskursas tokiomis temomis kaip globalizacija ir informacijos amžius, informacinė visuomenė, informacinės ir ryšių technologijos pereina pereina į kiber-antropologijos sritį. Nors internetiniai žaidimai ir internetinės žaidėjų bendruomenės nėra naujiena, tačiau vis augantis visuomenės domėjimasis žaidimais ir vis didėjantis žaidėjų skaičius parodo, kad šie žaidimai ir su jais susijusios bendruomenės sukuria gerą tyrimo pagrindą socialinių mokslų atstovams. Vienas iš itin naudingų metodų yra virtuali etnografija bei dalyvaujamas stebėjimas pačiame žaidime. Šiame darbe siekiama pateikti tikrą socialinių konstruotų virtualioje erdvėje formavimosi aprašą remiantis etnografiniu Žiedų valdovo internetinio žaidimo (Lordo of the Rings Online) bei tame žaidime susikūrusios bendruomenės tyrimu naudojantis virtualios etnografijos metodu apjungiančiu eminę ir etinę perspektyvą. Internetiniai žaidimai (MMORPGs) gyvuoja jau beveik dešimtmetį, tačiau pastaraisiais metais itin išpopuliarėjo. Per paskutinius 6 metus žaidimai virto klestinčiu kultūriniu fenomenu su daugiau kaip 20 milijonu žmonių kas dieną įsitraukusių į įvairias socialines sąveikas. Internetiniai žaidimai sukuria socialinių sąveikų unikalią aplinką, nes žaidėjų nebesieja ta pati fizinė aplinka, o neverbalinė komunikacija tampa nebeįmanoma. Internetiniai žaidimai leidžia žaidėjams bendrauti su kitais pasaulio žaidėjais, o pats žaidimas nebėra asmeniškas ar privatus, nes jame susitinka daugybė... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

<p>This dissertation is a study of social interaction in virtual worlds and virtual world design. A virtual world is a synchronous, multi-user system that offers a persistent spatial environment for iconically represented participants. Together, these form an example of social interaction design. I have applied an arena perspective on my object of study, meaning that I focus on these socio-technical systems as places.</p><p>I have investigated the persistent qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds. What I have found is that virtual worlds are as real as the physical world. They are filled with real people interacting with each other evoking real emotions and leading to real consequences. There are no fixed boundaries between the virtual and physical arenas that make up a participant’s lifeworld.</p><p>I have found that participants in virtual worlds are not anonymous and bodiless actors on a level playing field. Participants construct everything needed to create social structures such as identities and status symbols. The qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds cannot be measured against physical interaction. Doing so conceals the qualities of virtual interaction. Through the concepts of levity and proximity, I offer an alternative measure that better captures the unique properties of the medium. Levity is related to the use of avatars and the displacement into a virtual context and manifests itself as a kind of lightness in the way participants approach the interaction. Proximity is my term for the transformation of social distances that takes place in virtual worlds. While participants perceive that they are in the same place despite being physically separated, the technology can also create barriers separating participants from their physical surroundings. The gap between the participant and her avatar is also of social significance.</p><p>As a theoretical foundation for design, I have used Michael Heim’s writings and practices as a base for a phenomenologically grounded approach, which provides an alternative to the dominating perspectives of architecture and engineering. Based on an explorative design project and the earlier mentioned findings regarding social interaction, I have formulated a model for virtual world design called interacture. This model takes the interaction between participants as the fundamental building material and the starting point of the design process. From there, layers of function and structure are added, all the time balancing the design between fantasy and realism.</p><p>I have explored the possibilities of using ethnographic studies as the foundation for a participant centered design approach. I have aimed for an inside view of my object of study both as an ethnographer and as a designer. One outcome of this approach is that I have come to understand virtual worlds not just as places but also as processes where the experience of participating can change drastically over time as the participant reaches new stages in the process.</p><p>In conclusion, the method of integrating ethnography with design and the understanding of social interaction as the fundamental building material is woven into a general approach to the study and design of socio-technical systems called social interaction design.</p>

This dissertation is a study of social interaction in virtual worlds and virtual world design. A virtual world is a synchronous, multi-user system that offers a persistent spatial environment for iconically represented participants. Together, these form an example of social interaction design. I have applied an arena perspective on my object of study, meaning that I focus on these socio-technical systems as places. I have investigated the persistent qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds. What I have found is that virtual worlds are as real as the physical world. They are filled with real people interacting with each other evoking real emotions and leading to real consequences. There are no fixed boundaries between the virtual and physical arenas that make up a participant’s lifeworld. I have found that participants in virtual worlds are not anonymous and bodiless actors on a level playing field. Participants construct everything needed to create social structures such as identities and status symbols. The qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds cannot be measured against physical interaction. Doing so conceals the qualities of virtual interaction. Through the concepts of levity and proximity, I offer an alternative measure that better captures the unique properties of the medium. Levity is related to the use of avatars and the displacement into a virtual context and manifests itself as a kind of lightness in the way participants approach the interaction. Proximity is my term for the transformation of social distances that takes place in virtual worlds. While participants perceive that they are in the same place despite being physically separated, the technology can also create barriers separating participants from their physical surroundings. The gap between the participant and her avatar is also of social significance. As a theoretical foundation for design, I have used Michael Heim’s writings and practices as a base for a phenomenologically grounded approach, which provides an alternative to the dominating perspectives of architecture and engineering. Based on an explorative design project and the earlier mentioned findings regarding social interaction, I have formulated a model for virtual world design called interacture. This model takes the interaction between participants as the fundamental building material and the starting point of the design process. From there, layers of function and structure are added, all the time balancing the design between fantasy and realism. I have explored the possibilities of using ethnographic studies as the foundation for a participant centered design approach. I have aimed for an inside view of my object of study both as an ethnographer and as a designer. One outcome of this approach is that I have come to understand virtual worlds not just as places but also as processes where the experience of participating can change drastically over time as the participant reaches new stages in the process. In conclusion, the method of integrating ethnography with design and the understanding of social interaction as the fundamental building material is woven into a general approach to the study and design of socio-technical systems called social interaction design.

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Dans ce travail, j’étudie les relations entre la blogosphère politique dans la ville de São Paulo, au Brésil, et l’ensemble de l’écologie médiatique dans laquelle celle-ci est insérée. En établissant un dialogue avec les théories qui posent la dissémination des blogues comme le moment de répartition des moyens de production et de démocratisation de parole, je propose que la blogosphère doit plutôt être envisagée comme une instance de filtrage des produits des médias de masse. J’emprunte le concept de « dispositif » à Michel Foucault et à Giorgio Agamben, pour définir les médias du monde contemporain selon les termes d’un dispositif médiatique. J’emprunte aussi les concepts de « two-step flow of communications » et de « leader d’opinion » à Paul F. Lazarsfeld et Elihu Katz pour localiser la blogosphère dans l’ensemble de notre espace médiatique. Je défends également l’idée que les blogueurs exercent aujourd’hui une fonction semblable à celle des leaders d’opinion que décrivent Katz et Lazarsfeld – ce que je nomme la fonction-filtre de la blogosphère - et que ces blogueurs se situent dans la couche intermédiaire du flux d’informations dans les démocraties occidentales, c'est-à-dire celle qui se trouve entre les médias de masse et les récepteurs. Pour conduire ma recherche, j’ai réalisé une ethnographie virtuelle auprès des blogueurs de la ville de São Paulo, au Brésil, pendant la période de la campagne électorale de 2008 à la mairie. Ensuite, j’ai soumis l’ensemble de leur production discursive à une analyse sociolinguistique. Et je conclus que plutôt qu’étant le fruit d’une révolution, l’écologie médiatique contemporaine reprend - en les diversifiant et en les étendant - des processus que l’on ne pensait propres qu’aux dynamiques des médias de masse. / Here I study the relationship between the political blogosphere of the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, and the ecology of media in which it is inserted. I establish a dialogue with the theorists who believe in the dissemination of the blogs as the final moment of the democratisation of the means of symbolic production, and I come to the conclusion that the blogosphere should more likely be viewed as a filtering instance of the products from the mass media. I borrow the concept of “dispositif” from Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben and I define the media of the contemporary age in terms of a communicative dispositif. I also borrow from Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz the concepts of “two-step flow of communications” and “opinion leader” to find the place of the blogosphere in our communicative space. I argue that today’s bloggers play the function of the opinion leaders described by Katz and Lazarsfeld – which I name the filter-function of the blogosphere – and that they are localized in the intermediate layer of the flow of communications in the contemporary western democracies: the layer in between the mass media and the receptors. To undertake my research I have conducted a virtual ethnography in the political blogosphere of the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, during the municipal elections in October 2008. Then I submitted the whole of their discursive production to a sociolinguistic analysis. I conclude this work by stating that more than the product of a revolution in the realm of communications, the contemporary media ecology takes over, diversify and extend processes that we once believed were restricted to the dynamics of the mass media.

Submitted by Mariana Dornelles Vargas (marianadv) on 2015-03-20T19:12:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 lugar_espaco.pdf: 14777510 bytes, checksum: 9fed180db861f3a92f44ce937c152535 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-20T19:12:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 lugar_espaco.pdf: 14777510 bytes, checksum: 9fed180db861f3a92f44ce937c152535 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-02-23 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A presente dissertação parte do reconhecimento da existência de representações de espaços do mundo físico em ambientes multiusuário online. Pretendemos identificar e discutir as motivações para a criação desse tipo de representação, bem como os modos como as mesmas são utilizadas e apropriadas por seus criadores e outros usuários. Iniciamos o trabalho com uma discussão teórica para diferenciar e definir três conceitos-chave para o tema da pesquisa: espaço, lugar e território. Nossa conceituação foi construída com base em estudiosos do espaço concreto, nas áreas da comunicação, geografia, sociologia e outras. De posse dos três conceitos, entramos em questões relacionadas à sociabilidade mediada pela internet, com especial atenção ao sentido identitário das relações com o espaço. A seguir, discutimos a associação dos usuários aos grupos sociais, lugares e identidades virtuais, com foco na reprodução de lugares concretos genéricos (como parques, florestas e bairros) e específicos (como cidades e monumentos históricos) no ciberespaço. Após uma revisão de diferentes tipos de ambientes multiusuário online, decidimos realizar o trabalho empírico no mundo virtual mulit-usuário (MUVE) Second Life, da Linden Lab. A escolha se deve à maior liberdade criativa que esse aplicativo propicia, à ausência de uma temática rígida e ao uso de várias linguagens (verbal, sonora e visual). A metodologia escolhida foi a etnografia virtual, que realizamos em 3 ilhas do Second Life: Ilha Brasil (representações de lugares genéricos), Ilha RJ City (representações de lugares específicos) e Ilha Brasil Curitiba (representações mistas). Os resultados apontam para a existência de uma ligação simbólica de territórios e lugares virtuais com os territórios e lugares concretos, tanto pela sua dinâmica, identidade e apresentação visual, como pelas práticas sociais que neles têm lugar, o que sugere um importante papel da identidade cultural na criação e busca por lugares virtuais que representam lugares do mundo concreto. / This dissertation's departing point is the recognition of the existence of representations of the physical world in multi-user online environments. We intended to identify and discuss the motivations behind the creation of this type of representation and the ways in which they are used and appropriated by their creators and other users. We began with a theoretical discussion aiming to differentiate and define three concepts central for the research theme: space, place and territory. To that end, we resorted to previous studies of material space in different areas of knowledge: communication, geography, sociology and others. With these three concepts, we addressed questions related to internet mediated sociability, with special attention to the identity meaning of spatial relations. Followed a discussion of users' association to social groups, places and virtual identities focusing the reproduction of generic concrete places (such as parks, forests and neighbourhoods) and specific ones (as cities and historical monuments) in cyberspace. After a revision of the different types of multi-user online environments, we decided to locate the empirical investigation in the multi-user virtual world (MUVE) Second Life, by Linden Lab. This choice was due to the higher level of creative freedom provided by this system, to the absence of strict theme and the combined use of text, sound and image in Second Life's interface. The chosen methodology was virtual ethnography, which we have performed in 3 Second Life islands: Ilha Brasil (representations of generic places), Ilha RJ City (representation of specific places) and Ilha Brasil Curitiba (mixed representations). Our results indicate the existence of a symbolic link between virtual and physical territories and places. This link is related to their dynamics, identity and visual presentation as well as to the social practices that happen there. This suggests that cultural identity plays an important role in the creation and search for virtual places which represent physical world places.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T16:27:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_alexandre_guimaraes_2011.pdf: 1448953 bytes, checksum: af799b059a020763de1229e1f70e1919 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-04-13 / The Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) of the School of Visual Arts Distance Education (FAV-EaD) is the search field of this work. It consists an ethnographic experience called virtual ethnography and its focus is the representation of teaching in the VLE, whose job performance is directly linked to the tutor. Thus, this research also had a character self-ethnographic therefore I build reports of my experiences as a tutor at VLE, immersed in other matters involving: a) displacements and encounters between the teacher and the graphic designer, b) review of my teaching experience and remeaning to the Art Education, c) analysis of subject´s positions of the teaching´s actors at VLE. / Este trabalho tem como campo de pesquisa o Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem (AVA) da Licenciatura em Artes Visuais Modalidade a Distância (FAV-EaD), da Faculdade de Artes Visuais (FAV) da UFG. Consta de uma experiência etnográfica denominada etnografia virtual e seu foco é a representação do trabalho docente no AVA, cuja performance profissional está diretamente ligada ao tutor. Nesse sentido, esta pesquisa também teve um caráter autoetnográfico, pois construí relatos de minhas experiências como tutor no AVA, imersas em outras questões que envolvem: a) deslocamentos e encontros entre o professor e o designer gráfico; b) revisão de minha experiência docente e ressignificações do arte/educar; c) análise de posições dos sujeitos que realizam o trabalho docente no ambiente virtual de aprendizagem.

Dans ce travail, j’étudie les relations entre la blogosphère politique dans la ville de São Paulo, au Brésil, et l’ensemble de l’écologie médiatique dans laquelle celle-ci est insérée. En établissant un dialogue avec les théories qui posent la dissémination des blogues comme le moment de répartition des moyens de production et de démocratisation de parole, je propose que la blogosphère doit plutôt être envisagée comme une instance de filtrage des produits des médias de masse. J’emprunte le concept de « dispositif » à Michel Foucault et à Giorgio Agamben, pour définir les médias du monde contemporain selon les termes d’un dispositif médiatique. J’emprunte aussi les concepts de « two-step flow of communications » et de « leader d’opinion » à Paul F. Lazarsfeld et Elihu Katz pour localiser la blogosphère dans l’ensemble de notre espace médiatique. Je défends également l’idée que les blogueurs exercent aujourd’hui une fonction semblable à celle des leaders d’opinion que décrivent Katz et Lazarsfeld – ce que je nomme la fonction-filtre de la blogosphère - et que ces blogueurs se situent dans la couche intermédiaire du flux d’informations dans les démocraties occidentales, c'est-à-dire celle qui se trouve entre les médias de masse et les récepteurs. Pour conduire ma recherche, j’ai réalisé une ethnographie virtuelle auprès des blogueurs de la ville de São Paulo, au Brésil, pendant la période de la campagne électorale de 2008 à la mairie. Ensuite, j’ai soumis l’ensemble de leur production discursive à une analyse sociolinguistique. Et je conclus que plutôt qu’étant le fruit d’une révolution, l’écologie médiatique contemporaine reprend - en les diversifiant et en les étendant - des processus que l’on ne pensait propres qu’aux dynamiques des médias de masse. / Here I study the relationship between the political blogosphere of the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, and the ecology of media in which it is inserted. I establish a dialogue with the theorists who believe in the dissemination of the blogs as the final moment of the democratisation of the means of symbolic production, and I come to the conclusion that the blogosphere should more likely be viewed as a filtering instance of the products from the mass media. I borrow the concept of “dispositif” from Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben and I define the media of the contemporary age in terms of a communicative dispositif. I also borrow from Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz the concepts of “two-step flow of communications” and “opinion leader” to find the place of the blogosphere in our communicative space. I argue that today’s bloggers play the function of the opinion leaders described by Katz and Lazarsfeld – which I name the filter-function of the blogosphere – and that they are localized in the intermediate layer of the flow of communications in the contemporary western democracies: the layer in between the mass media and the receptors. To undertake my research I have conducted a virtual ethnography in the political blogosphere of the city of São Paulo, in Brazil, during the municipal elections in October 2008. Then I submitted the whole of their discursive production to a sociolinguistic analysis. I conclude this work by stating that more than the product of a revolution in the realm of communications, the contemporary media ecology takes over, diversify and extend processes that we once believed were restricted to the dynamics of the mass media.

This thesis aims to understand and explain the importance that prostitution forums have for the exercise of power and influence in the area of prostitution. It also seeks to clarify how these forums developed and were able to occur within a Swedish context. Sweden was the first country to legislate to criminalise only the buying, but not the sale, of sexual services. Social work provisions aims to get people out of prostitution. The thesis is based on an ethnographic study of the three largest Swedish prostitution forums during a two-year period. The empirical material consists of both quantitative participant and content analysis and field notes from observation of the interactions on the forums. The theoretical framework is based mainly on A Theory of Fields by Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam. It focuses on the collective action on - and between - fields and how institutions are reproduced and changed.   The results show that most of the content was published by a smaller group of actors. The interaction can be divided into the following subjects: social shims; information; negotiations and rules; advice and support; viewpoints on the forum as well as discussion on prostitution and its regulation. Moreover, the study shows that the forums enabled both sex service providers and sex clients to meet collectively, pursue common interests and discuss which rules should prevail in the prostitution market. Providers also pursued self-organised harm reduction social measures. This form of self-help was also sanctioned by a municipal prostitution unit, which can be interpreted as if it acted in a contrary direction to the government’s prostitution policy. The actors in the forums perceived themselves to be stigmatised by society, where sex service providers to a greater extent than sex clients, described a form of stigma. In the forums they could, however, feel a sense of belonging. The actors perceived themselves to be monitored by the Swedish state and they collectively self-regulated the interaction. Sex service providers and sex clients also co-operated, on occasions, with the Swedish state in order to jointly combat child prostitution, human trafficking and organised crime.

Desde o final do século XX, o tema saúde é um das mais procurados na internet para diversos fins. As pessoas que convivem com HIV/AIDS não estão afastadas dessa tendência, formando inclusive um dos grupos de usuários que mais acessam a internet. Um grupo com um passado e presente de produção de movimento social que muito contribuiu para a reconhecida política HIV/AIDS brasileira. O objetivo desta tese é identificar e analisar os padrões de busca e interação com o conteúdo em saúde na internet no cotidiano das pessoas com HIV/AIDS, em particular nos potenciais desdobramentos em processos de medicalização, tomada de decisão sobre condutas em saúde e relação com movimento social. A metodologia se baseou em análise de conteúdo de entrevistas e realização de etnografia virtual de uma página fechada no Facebook. As discussões sobre o material pesquisado foram divididas em categorias analíticas, cuja análise gerou os seguintes resultados: a sociabilidade produzida na internet contribui para diminuir o sofrimento em relação ao preconceito, tanto em relação ao HIV/AIDS, quanto à homossexualidade; há uma carência de espaços de acolhimento virtual em detrimento a uma maior oferta de espaços para discussão sobre políticas públicas; a medicalização na rede produz a chance de se obter condutas não recomendadas, no entanto, pessoas vinculadas a grupos virtuais possuem mais estímulos a não abandonar a medicação; a confiabilidade nos conteúdos da internet em geral possui um padrão de acesso a sites recomendados pelos órgãos oficiais do setor saúde; é comum pesquisar antes ou depois da consulta médica, no entanto a negociação se dá em cyberespaços de acolhimento; muitos ativistas do HIV/AIDS foram estimulados a participar do ativismo político através da internet. Há necessidade de se ampliar espaços virtuais de acolhimento através de políticas públicas incentivadoras; a formação médica precisa contemplar questões relacionadas à internet e saúde sobre sociabilidade, adesão, e terapêutica digital, prescrição de sites, blogs e redes sociais, devendo-se ponderar com questões de medicalização e prevenção quaternária. / Since the late twentieth century, health is one of the most popular subjects on the Internet for various reasons. People living with HIV/AIDS are not apart from this trend, being one of the groups of users with most intensive Internet access. This group is characterized by a intense participation in a social movement that greatly contributed to the acclaimed HIV/AIDS Brazilian policy. The objective of this thesis is to identify and analyze the search patterns and interaction with content on the Internet in the daily health of people with HIV/AIDS, particularly in potential developments in medicalization processes, decision making on health behaviors and relationship with social movements. The methodology involved interviews, which were later subject to content analysis, and a virtual ethnography of a closed secret group on Facebook. The discussion of the produced material was divided into analytical categories, whose analysis yielded the following results: sociability produced in the internet helps to reduce suffering in relation to prejudice, both with regard to HIV/AIDS and homosexuality; there are not many welcoming zones for people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) on the internet at the expense of a greater supply of spaces for discussion on public policy; medicalization produces opportunities to incur in unhealthy behaviors, however, people linked to social networks have more encouragement to not give up the medication; the reliability of internet content in general has a pattern of access to sites recommended by official agencies of the health sector; it is common to search before or after medical consultations, though negotiations about medication and symptoms take place in social networks; activists of HIV/AIDS were encouraged to participate in political activism over the internet. There is a need to have welcoming zones to PLHA on the internet guaranteed by public policy; medical education needs to cover issues related to the internet and health, such as sociability, compliance, and "digital therapy", prescription sites, blogs and social networks, but should consider issues of medicalization and quaternary prevention as well.