Presentation about video games and social capital from ESA conference in Prague, 2016.

1. GAMING ALONE? PARTICIPATORY
DIMENSIONS OF SOCIAL CAPITAL IN
CROATIAN VIDEO GAMING POPULATION
Krešimir Krolo
Ivan Puzek
Sociology department
University of Zadar
Croatia
25.08.2015.
12th Conference of the ESA
Differences, Inequalities and Sociological Imagination

2. Issues of participatory culture and participation in
offline social activities
Contemporary digital interactive media environment as
a „great distractor” from other activities (time
displacement hypothesis)
Social capital vs. digital social capital?
Decline or rearrangement of participatory activities?

3. Robert D. Putnam’s „Bowling alone” as a theoretical
starting point (disruptive media, withdrawal from
public life due to home entertainment systems)
Upgraded and upscaled with broader understanding of
technological, cultural and social transformations
(Wellman, Castells, Dijk)

4. OPERATIONALIZATION OF SOCIAL CAPITAL
Participatory dimensions of social capital – structural component
(Putnam)
Memberships in non-govermental organisations and iniciatives (offline)
Membership in online groups and pages
Civic activism (offline and online)
Participatory activities (oriented towards gaming)

5. These social capital dimensions compared with
specific dimensions of video gaming
Gaming intensity and genre preferences
OPERATIONALIZATION OF VIDEO GAME
USAGE

6. Intensity of play: last three months, daily based
Genres: FPS, RTS, MOBA, MMORPG, RPG, TBS,
Puzzle, Action-Adventure, Adventure...

7. RESULTS

10. CONCLUDING REMARKS
Gaming intensity and civic engangement is corelated with age
Civic engangement is not corelated with gaming intensity – time
displacement hypothesis disproved
Genre preferences not relevant for participatory dimensions of social
capital
Video gamers display average level of engangement.
Determinants of their engagement level are not dependent on their
gaming intensity. (comparable to the non gaming population)
Showing both interest in classic structural participatory dimensions of
social capital (memberships in NGO’s) and more fluid, participatory digital
social capital.

11. GAMING ALONE? PARTICIPATORY
DIMENSIONS OF SOCIAL CAPITAL IN
CROATIAN VIDEO GAMING POPULATION
Krešimir Krolo - kkrolo@unizd.hr
Ivan Puzek - ipuzek@unizd.hr
Sociology department
University of Zadar
Croatia
25.08.2015.
12th Conference of the ESA
Differences, Inequalities and Sociological Imagination