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PRODID:-//Columba Systems Ltd//NONSGML CPNG/SpringViewer/ICal Output/3.3-
 M3//EN
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20150129T101311Z
DTSTART:20150211T134500Z
DTEND:20150211T150000Z
SUMMARY:Sociology Seminar: Laura Fenton and Feng Zhu
UID:{http://www.columbasystems.com/customers/uom/gpp/eventid/}m159-i5hzfl
 ji-uylkz0
DESCRIPTION:Our first seminar of 2015 showcases the work of two of our Ph
 D students. All staff and students welcome. Tea\, coffee and biscuits fr
 om 1.45pm.\n\n'Earning a drink? The Alcohol-Work Connection in Women's D
 rinking Biographies' - Laura Fenton\, PhD student\, University of Manche
 ster\n\nIn both popular culture and the social science literature on the
  topic\, the connection between alcohol and work is conventionally under
 stood through the lens of ‘stress.’  In other words\, drinking alcohol i
 s conceptualised as a response to the stresses of work life. Whilst not 
 disputing that such a connection exists\, this paper develops a notably 
 different lens on the relationship between alcohol and work life. Drawin
 g on my thesis research\, namely life history interviews with women abou
 t their relationships to using alcohol\, the paper explores how the conn
 ections between drinking practices and work life are considerably more m
 ulti-faceted and nuanced than the ‘stress thesis’ suggests. On a symboli
 c level\, ‘work’ and drink are linked through an imperative\, expressed 
 as ‘earning’ a drink by several participants in this study\, and explore
 d elsewhere in the literature (Langhamer\, 2003). This paper investigate
 s the logic and limits of alcohol as a reward for work: what counts as ‘
 work’? Is unpaid work part of this economy of effort rewarded with pleas
 ure? What happens when alcohol is not earned but consumed anyway? After 
 addressing the alcohol-work connection as an imagined economy of toil an
 d pleasure\, the paper turns to the place of paid work in the drinking b
 iographies of the women interviewed for this study\, offering some initi
 al reflections on the role of workplace cultures in shaping rituals of p
 ost-work drinking.\n\n'The Implied Player: Games Playing Players' Feng Z
 hu\, PhD student\, University of Manchester\n\nThis paper takes\, as its
  point of departure\, the concept of the ‘implied player’\, as set out b
 y Aarseth in Transgressive Play and the Implied Player (2007).  His view
  that there had been an inordinate focus upon ‘transgressive players’ an
 d ‘unpredictable play’ within game studies\, which had obscured the subj
 ection of the player\, will be considered in relation to not only the pa
 rticular discourses within the field that have concerned computer games’
  ontological particularity\, but also to arguments that the fragmentary 
 and the perspectival hinder the political project of grasping cultural a
 nd historical dominants.  Turning to reader-response theory and the orig
 ins of the ‘implied reader’\, this paper asks whether a coherent concept
  of the ‘implied player’ can be formulated that can negotiate a satisfac
 tory point between the tendencies towards homogeneity and heterogeneity\
 , and which will assist in our dialectically thinking the structural and
  fragmentary.    
STATUS:TENTATIVE
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
CLASS:PUBLIC
LOCATION:Boardroom (2nd floor)\, Arthur Lewis Building\, Manchester
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