Journal Article 1: Conway, S. (2010). 'It's in the game' and above the game: An analysis of the users of sports videogames. Convergence, 16, 334–354.

Abstract: This article is a participant-observer case study of a group of sports videogame players. The game played, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, belongs to the author-designated ‘televisual’ sub-genre, remediating (Bolter and Grusin, 1999) aspects of televisual coverage such as the broadcast angle, action replays and commentary teams. We investigate the use of these games and their position within both gaming and sport culture. To do so we approach the player from four perspectives: dress, body language, argot (slang, group-specific dialect), and proxemics (examining how people spatially situate themselves in regard to one another within the social environment). These categories then combine to formulate the last section, ‘Social Play’, where we discuss the social meta-game being enacted between participants to barter social status, capital (Bourdieu, 1984) and specific gamer capital (Consalvo, 2007).

Journal Article 2: Kidder, J. L. (2005). Style and action: A decoding of bike messenger symbols. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 34, 344–367.

Abstract: Using a social world’s perspective, this article looks at the style of New York City bike messengers. Combining the works of Hebdige and Biernacki, it is argued that messenger style is intertwined with messenger practice. Five stylistic elements are analyzed: riding behaviors, the use of helmets, bicycle choice, clothing, and language. In each case, evidence is presented to illustrate how a liminal social position and an outlaw character is expressed within the signs messengers display.

Journal Article 3: Turner, F. (2009). Burning man at google: A cultural infrastructure for new media production. New Media & Society, 11, 73-94.

Abstract: Every August for more than a decade, thousands of information technologists and other knowledge workers have trekked out into a barren stretch of alkali desert and built a temporary city devoted to art, technology and communal living: Burning Man. Drawing on extensive archival research, participant observation and interviews, this article explores the ways in which Burning Man's bohemian ethos supports new forms of production emerging in Silicon Valley and especially at Google. It shows how elements of the Burning Man world — including the building of a sociotechnical commons, participation in project-based artistic labor and the fusion of social and professional interaction — help to shape and legitimate the collaborative manufacturing processes driving the growth of Google and other firms. The article develops the notion that Burning Man serves as a key cultural infrastructure for the Bay Area's new media industries.

Journal Article 4: Clarkson, J. (2008). The limitations of the discourse of norms: Gay visibility and degrees of transgression. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 32, 368–382.

Abstract: This article examines discourses of gay visibility in the online gay community of StraightActing.com. In this discourse the “flamer” and other “gay-acting” gender performers are frequently criticized for fear of their power to teach gay and straight people that one particular type of gay person is the norm. The author argues that this conceptualization of the term norm attributes gay visibility the power to construct a singular gay identity as preferred and positions gay men to fight among themselves for dominance over that one identity. It is essential we conceptualize the power of the visibility as able to produce multiple conventions of gay identity. The battle over control of a “gay norm” demonizes those who perform different degrees of transgression and impedes progress toward queer liberation.

Journal Article 5: Yilmaz, G., & Pena, J. (2014). The influence of social categories and interpersonal behaviors on future intentions and attitudes to form subgroups in virtual teams. Communication Research, 41, 333–352.

Abstract: Subgroup formation within larger virtual teams can lead to biased information sharing and conflict. Given this, the present study examined how social categories (i.e., in-group vs. out-group status) and interpersonal behaviors (i.e., a teammate behaving positively vs. negatively) influenced intentions and attitudes toward subgrouping in short-term virtual teams. One hundred sixty-four participants interacted in four-person teams using a synchronous chat program. The analysis showed that, though both social categories and interpersonal behaviors affected subgrouping choices, interpersonal behaviors had a stronger effect. Additionally, there was no evidence for the “black sheep hypothesis” predicting that in-group members behaving negatively discourages subgrouping. Overall, this exemplified how minimal categorical cues trigger in-group favoritism and out-group discrimination in virtual teams as anticipated by social identity models. The findings also illustrated how interpersonal behaviors robustly affect virtual team dynamics as stated by social information processing theory.