Work, Power and Performance: Analysing the ‘Reality’ Game of <i>The Apprentice</i>

Couldry, Nick; Littler, Jo

doi:10.1177/1749975510378191

Cited by 43 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Despite women being afforded increased opportunities to create games, their talent and merit is subject to intense critique and often dismissal because it does not fit into rigidly defined categories of games, gamers, and what real passion for digital games looks like -unquestioning and uncritical, expressing rather than challenging existing neoliberal corporate values and practice (Couldry and Littler, 2011) -as the backlash against feminist critique in games indicates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When passion isn’t enough: gender, affect and credibility in digital games design

Harvey

Shepherd

2016

International Journal of Cultural Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Design 2Recent controversies around identity and diversity in digital games culture indicate the heightened affective terrain for participants within this creative industry. While work in digital games production has been characterized as a form of passionate, affective labour, this paper examines its specificities as a constraining and enabling force. Affect, particularly passion, serves to render forms of game development oriented toward professionalization and support of the existing industry norms as credible and legitimate, while relegating other types of participation, including that by women and other marginalized creators, to subordinate positions within hierarchies of production. Using the example of a women-in-games initiative in Montreal as a case study, we indicate how linkages between affect and competencies, specifically creativity and technical abilities, perpetuate a long-standing delegitimization of women's work in digital game design. affect, gender, labour, credibility, passion, digital game design, creative industries, cultural production 3 Perhaps we truly encounter the political only when we feel. Staiger et. al., 2010: 4 (emphasis in original)

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When passion isn’t enough: gender, affect and credibility in digital games design

Harvey

Shepherd

2016

International Journal of Cultural Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In this sense, neoliberalism seeks to establish a pedagogic role in respect of the majority of the population through the closing of common public spaces in the media and education, and an increasing focus upon financial reward, consumerism and more material benefits. Giroux's comments fit with changes in educational policy but also the rise of popular television progammes such as the Apprentice, Dragons Den and others that focus upon entrepreneurialism and business success (Couldry and Littler 2011). Further in the English context, as others have noted, much 'mainstream' 6 popular entertainment has focused upon the so called 'shameless' lifestyles of the working-class who are seemingly lacking in taste and are vulgar (Tyler and Bennett (2010).…”

Section: Neoliberalism the Crisis Of Capitalism And Educationmentioning

confidence: 98%

Revolution from Above in English Schools: Neoliberalism, the Democratic Commons and Education

Stevenson

2015

Cultural Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since the formation of cultural sociology in the 1960s there has been a long history and interest in different styles of schooling as well as more democratic forms of pedagogy. Raymond Williams's (1962) idea of the long revolution urged the development of more dialogic forms of learning, seeking to develop common systems of education that broke with the patterns of a class society. Similarly Richard Hoggart (1958) had just a few years earlier argued for more critical forms of education, should the working-classes become 'corrupted' by mass culture. Both Hoggart and Williams promoted the idea of a common education system that offered children both a creative and civically oriented life as democratic citizens. If such an education system were to emerge, they claimed it would need the backing of the labour movement who seemingly had most to gain from an education system that did not merely train workers to labour, but sought to enable them to live more complex, democratic and educated lives. This approach is in response to the problem that the substantial gains of state education and the welfare state did not go far enough in breaking with the dominant logic of capitalism. When it came to understanding the resources spent on education, the dominant patterns of pedagogy and the choice of curriculum it was the needs of capital and the labour market that was given priority. For both Hoggart and Williams the labour movement in this respect needed to develop an educational agenda that insisted that working people were more than just labouring bodies, but could engage themselves in creative pursuits, democratic politics and develop educated interests.However rather than the English education system being remade in more democratic terms what has become apparent in more recent times is that capitalism, in association with political elites, think tanks, charities and other moral entrepreneurs, is in the process of radically transforming the existing structure of schooling [1]. The recent break-up of the comprehensive school and its replacement over a relatively

show abstract

“…Skeggs (2010: 75) describes such heightened emotional gesturing as that we see above in terms of the "affective" excess of melodrama. Couldry and Littler (2011) also point out the manipulation of "emotional commitment" in reality TV formats, not just to intensify any affective relations the audience may feel with the participants, but also to further the relations of power and economic drive of the format.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flirtation, desire, and cut-glass biscuit barrels: Forms of expertise in Antiques Road Trip

Smith

Higgins²

2016

Discourse, Context & Media

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Work, Power and Performance: Analysing the ‘Reality’ Game of The Apprentice

Abstract: ANALYSING THE 'REALITY' GAME OF THE APPRENTICE NICK COULDRY AND JO LITTLER 7974 words inc reff and notes 'In these ways, the social has been diminished; [but] capitalism remains. Inequality becomes increasingly tied to isolation'.

Cited by 43 publications

References 12 publications

When passion isn’t enough: gender, affect and credibility in digital games design

When passion isn’t enough: gender, affect and credibility in digital games design

Revolution from Above in English Schools: Neoliberalism, the Democratic Commons and Education

Flirtation, desire, and cut-glass biscuit barrels: Forms of expertise in Antiques Road Trip

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About