Kerr, Aphra (2016) Recruitment, Work and Identity in Community Management: Passion, Precarity and Play. In: Virtual Workers and the Global Labour Market. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 117-135. ISBN 978-1-137-47919-8

Preview

Download (253kB) | Preview

Abstract

This chapter examines the recruitment, work and identity of community managers in online games. Community management has emerged as a new occupational role in the past decade with the rise of networked games. They play a core intermediary function between game players and game developers which can be conceptualised as a form of creative and emotional labour. Drawing upon an analysis of job advertisements and face to face interviews Kerr argues that the location of these jobs is shaped by existing labour mobility and geo-linguistic markets, while recruitment practices, working conditions and working practices are shaped by gendered and heteronormative norms. Recruiters target gamers in order to convert informal forms of social and cultural capital into relatively low paid, precarious and largely invisible forms of work.

Item Type:	Book Section
Keywords:	Recruitment; Work; Identity; Community Management; Passion; Precarity; Play; Virtual Workers; Global Labour Market;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Item ID:	9150
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47919-8_6
Depositing User:	Prof. Aphra Kerr
Date Deposited:	16 Jan 2018 15:37
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

Repository Staff Only(login required)

Item control page

Downloads

Origin of downloads