New Article by Ondřej Klíma

Written By Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky

We are proud to announce a new article, “Whose voice matters? The gaming sphere and the Blitzchung controversy in eSports” by Ondřej Klíma in the American Journal of Cultural Sociology.

“With eSports and video games rapidly gaining popularity, we are witnessing a rise of semi-autonomous gaming communities. I propose using Alexander’s civil sphere theory and my concept of the gaming sphere to understand the dynamics of the meaning-making processes herein. I ask: why did the Blitzchung controversy spark such outrage? I explore the hidden meanings behind the controversy where the professional Hearthstone eSports player Ng Wai Chung was punished for expressing his opinion during post-game interview by calling to “Liberate Hong Kong,” losing $4000—all happening in the ostensibly apolitical gaming sphere….”

Ondřej Klíma

Klíma, O. Whose voice matters? The gaming sphere and the Blitzchung controversy in eSports. Am J Cult Sociol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-022-00174-1.

Full ARTICLE available Here

Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky

Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky is associate professor of sociology at Masaryk University, Brno (Czech Republic), and Faculty Fellow at Yale University’s Center for Cultural Sociology. She is a cultural sociologist in the tradition of the Strong Program, who focuses on the meaning-making process in her research on international migration. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College and her M.A., M.Phil., and PhD from Yale University. Recent books include The Courage for Civil Repair: Narrating the Righteous in International Migration (with Carlo Tognato and Jeffrey C. Alexander, eds., Palgrave, 2020) and Historicizing Roma in Central Europe: Between Critical Whiteness and Epistemic Injustice (with Victoria Shmidt, Routledge 2021), Besides civil sphere theory, her current research focuses on in-depth cultural sociological analysis and reconstruction of public issues such as perceptions of migration, and the cultural sociology of conspiracy theories.

https://www.cstnetwork.org/jaworsky-bio
Previous

Civil Sphere Theory Conference 2023 in October!
Next

Recent Civil Sphere in India Conference at Yale