Karen Throsby
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719099625
- eISBN:
- 9781526114976
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099625.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This book is about the extreme sport of marathon swimming. It provides insight into a social world about which very little is known, while simultaneously exploring the ways in which the social world ...
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This book is about the extreme sport of marathon swimming. It provides insight into a social world about which very little is known, while simultaneously exploring the ways in which the social world of marathon swimming intersects and overlaps with other social worlds and configurations of power and identity. Drawing on extensive (auto) ethnographic data, Immersion explores the embodied and social processes of becoming a marathon swimming and investigates how social belonging is produced and policed. Using marathon swimming as a lens, this foundation provides a basis for an exploration of what constitutes the ‘good’ body in contemporary society across a range of sites including charitable swimming, fatness, gender and health. The book argues that the dominant representations of marathon swimming are at odds with its lived realities, and that this reflects the entrenched and limited discursive resources available for thinking about the sporting body in the wider social and cultural context. It argues that in spite of these constraints, novel modes of embodiment and pleasure seep out between the cracks of those entrenched understandings and representations, highlighting the inability of the dominant understandings of sporting embodiment to account for experiences of immersion. This in turn opens up spaces for resistance and alternative accounts of embodiment and identity both within and outside of marathon swimming.Less
This book is about the extreme sport of marathon swimming. It provides insight into a social world about which very little is known, while simultaneously exploring the ways in which the social world of marathon swimming intersects and overlaps with other social worlds and configurations of power and identity. Drawing on extensive (auto) ethnographic data, Immersion explores the embodied and social processes of becoming a marathon swimming and investigates how social belonging is produced and policed. Using marathon swimming as a lens, this foundation provides a basis for an exploration of what constitutes the ‘good’ body in contemporary society across a range of sites including charitable swimming, fatness, gender and health. The book argues that the dominant representations of marathon swimming are at odds with its lived realities, and that this reflects the entrenched and limited discursive resources available for thinking about the sporting body in the wider social and cultural context. It argues that in spite of these constraints, novel modes of embodiment and pleasure seep out between the cracks of those entrenched understandings and representations, highlighting the inability of the dominant understandings of sporting embodiment to account for experiences of immersion. This in turn opens up spaces for resistance and alternative accounts of embodiment and identity both within and outside of marathon swimming.
Angel M. Y. Lin and Evelyn Y. F. Man
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9789622099586
- eISBN:
- 9789888180233
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622099586.003.0003
- Subject:
- Education, Secondary Education
In this chapter, key issues in immersion education are considered and their implications for Hong Kong discussed. These key issues regarding immersion education include the following frequently ...
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In this chapter, key issues in immersion education are considered and their implications for Hong Kong discussed. These key issues regarding immersion education include the following frequently asked critical questions: (1) Is immersion suitable for all, or only for the elite? What should be the criteria for the selection of students into immersion programmes? Or, should there be selection at all? (2) How are bridging and immersion-servicing programmes designed? And how effective are they? Is there a bridging role for the use of some L1 in immersion classrooms? If so, are there any clear guidelines on how and when L1 should be used? (3) What factors have to be taken into account when selecting between early and late immersion, and between total and partial immersion (mixed mode)? (4) Is immersion the only way to achieve a high level of L2 proficiency? Can L2 be effectively taught as a subject? Is teaching L2 as a separate subject necessarily a less effective alternative to immersion?Less
In this chapter, key issues in immersion education are considered and their implications for Hong Kong discussed. These key issues regarding immersion education include the following frequently asked critical questions: (1) Is immersion suitable for all, or only for the elite? What should be the criteria for the selection of students into immersion programmes? Or, should there be selection at all? (2) How are bridging and immersion-servicing programmes designed? And how effective are they? Is there a bridging role for the use of some L1 in immersion classrooms? If so, are there any clear guidelines on how and when L1 should be used? (3) What factors have to be taken into account when selecting between early and late immersion, and between total and partial immersion (mixed mode)? (4) Is immersion the only way to achieve a high level of L2 proficiency? Can L2 be effectively taught as a subject? Is teaching L2 as a separate subject necessarily a less effective alternative to immersion?
Hélène Ibata
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781526117397
- eISBN:
- 9781526136114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526117397.003.0006
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
Chapter 5 focuses on what appears to be one of the most conscious responses to the Burkean challenge: the invention of the panorama by the Irish-Scottish painter Robert Barker in the late 1780s. By ...
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Chapter 5 focuses on what appears to be one of the most conscious responses to the Burkean challenge: the invention of the panorama by the Irish-Scottish painter Robert Barker in the late 1780s. By literally removing the edges of representation, and immersing its viewers within an uninterrupted circular view, the panorama created a striking illusion of reality which, at least while the medium was still novel, caused unprecedented spectatorial thrills. While the medium could be linked to a tradition of illusion and immersion which predated the Enlightenment reflexion on the sublime, Barker clearly saw its relevance as a means to deny the limitations of painting. The chapter’s analyses of programmes, narratives and descriptions of panoramas by Robert Barker, Henry Aston Barker, Robert Ker Porter and Robert Burford suggest that this conception of the panorama as the most adequate pictorial vehicle of the sublime was to endure for several decades.Less
Chapter 5 focuses on what appears to be one of the most conscious responses to the Burkean challenge: the invention of the panorama by the Irish-Scottish painter Robert Barker in the late 1780s. By literally removing the edges of representation, and immersing its viewers within an uninterrupted circular view, the panorama created a striking illusion of reality which, at least while the medium was still novel, caused unprecedented spectatorial thrills. While the medium could be linked to a tradition of illusion and immersion which predated the Enlightenment reflexion on the sublime, Barker clearly saw its relevance as a means to deny the limitations of painting. The chapter’s analyses of programmes, narratives and descriptions of panoramas by Robert Barker, Henry Aston Barker, Robert Ker Porter and Robert Burford suggest that this conception of the panorama as the most adequate pictorial vehicle of the sublime was to endure for several decades.
Andy Miah
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262035477
- eISBN:
- 9780262343114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035477.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This chapter examines how spectator encounter digital technology in sport, which reveals a blurring of participation and spectating. It also proposes that spectating is changing through the ...
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This chapter examines how spectator encounter digital technology in sport, which reveals a blurring of participation and spectating. It also proposes that spectating is changing through the development of digital interactive experiences, such as urban screens, TV on demand, mobile technology, and social media, creating a new form of remote participation. The chapter also asks considers that the concept of spectator no longer makes sense in the context of an immersive viewing experience, where the witness is brought into the space of the activity, rather than simply occupying a third person perspective.Less
This chapter examines how spectator encounter digital technology in sport, which reveals a blurring of participation and spectating. It also proposes that spectating is changing through the development of digital interactive experiences, such as urban screens, TV on demand, mobile technology, and social media, creating a new form of remote participation. The chapter also asks considers that the concept of spectator no longer makes sense in the context of an immersive viewing experience, where the witness is brought into the space of the activity, rather than simply occupying a third person perspective.
Karen Throsby
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719099625
- eISBN:
- 9781526114976
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099625.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Opening with an autoethnographic extract detailing the end of the author’s English Channel swim, the chapter describes the sport of marathon swimming. It presents a working definition and a ...
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Opening with an autoethnographic extract detailing the end of the author’s English Channel swim, the chapter describes the sport of marathon swimming. It presents a working definition and a methodological account of the research on which the book is based. The chapter concludes with a summary of the chapters, highlighting the key arguments and concepts developed throughout the book.Less
Opening with an autoethnographic extract detailing the end of the author’s English Channel swim, the chapter describes the sport of marathon swimming. It presents a working definition and a methodological account of the research on which the book is based. The chapter concludes with a summary of the chapters, highlighting the key arguments and concepts developed throughout the book.
Jim Blascovich
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780195387643
- eISBN:
- 9780199369195
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195387643.003.0004
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Models and Architectures, Cognitive Psychology
How do we know when people are immersed in virtual reality? Can such immersion be assessed implicitly? This chapter explores the integration of two independently developed theoretical models relevant ...
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How do we know when people are immersed in virtual reality? Can such immersion be assessed implicitly? This chapter explores the integration of two independently developed theoretical models relevant to social interaction within digital immersive virtual environments. The Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat, a motivational model based on demand-to-resource evaluations, is delineated including description of validated implicit cardiovascular indexes of the challenge/threat motivational states. The Threshold Model of Social Influence within Digital Virtual Environments is also elucidated. Finally, the value of their integration for drawing inferences of level of immersion and polarity of motivational states of individuals in digital virtual environments is argued and illustrated.Less
How do we know when people are immersed in virtual reality? Can such immersion be assessed implicitly? This chapter explores the integration of two independently developed theoretical models relevant to social interaction within digital immersive virtual environments. The Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat, a motivational model based on demand-to-resource evaluations, is delineated including description of validated implicit cardiovascular indexes of the challenge/threat motivational states. The Threshold Model of Social Influence within Digital Virtual Environments is also elucidated. Finally, the value of their integration for drawing inferences of level of immersion and polarity of motivational states of individuals in digital virtual environments is argued and illustrated.
Ray Zone
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813136110
- eISBN:
- 9780813141183
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813136110.003.0014
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The history of the IMAX Corporation and their use of 3D in large format 15/70mm is surveyed. The immersive nature of viewing the IMAX 3D film is discussed by a number of its creators.
The history of the IMAX Corporation and their use of 3D in large format 15/70mm is surveyed. The immersive nature of viewing the IMAX 3D film is discussed by a number of its creators.
Christophe Wall-Romana
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823245482
- eISBN:
- 9780823252527
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823245482.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Contrary to accepted ideas, Cocteau was not a poet who later turned to cinema: he was a cinepoet from the start. This chapter examines the experience of the film apparatus and embodied spectatorial ...
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Contrary to accepted ideas, Cocteau was not a poet who later turned to cinema: he was a cinepoet from the start. This chapter examines the experience of the film apparatus and embodied spectatorial immersion in his writings over the years 1913 to 1930. Even before he penned film criticism (ca. 1919), or discovered Chaplin (ca. 1916), Cocteau developed a detailed sensorial poetics of the cinema apparatus. The chapter focuses on specific aspects such as the cone of image projection overhead, the screen as a slice of the 3-D cone, off-screen as fantasmatic visual space, and visual immersion as correlated to being submerged underwater or to encountering the hard snowy surface of the screen. Two types of documentary were germinal for Cocteau: the footage rescued posthumously from the Scott expedition (ca. 1912) and the Williamson brothers’ early submarine documentaries (ca. 1913). The cinepoetics of Scott vs. Williamson is also conspicuous in his early novels such as Thomas The Impostor (1923).Less
Contrary to accepted ideas, Cocteau was not a poet who later turned to cinema: he was a cinepoet from the start. This chapter examines the experience of the film apparatus and embodied spectatorial immersion in his writings over the years 1913 to 1930. Even before he penned film criticism (ca. 1919), or discovered Chaplin (ca. 1916), Cocteau developed a detailed sensorial poetics of the cinema apparatus. The chapter focuses on specific aspects such as the cone of image projection overhead, the screen as a slice of the 3-D cone, off-screen as fantasmatic visual space, and visual immersion as correlated to being submerged underwater or to encountering the hard snowy surface of the screen. Two types of documentary were germinal for Cocteau: the footage rescued posthumously from the Scott expedition (ca. 1912) and the Williamson brothers’ early submarine documentaries (ca. 1913). The cinepoetics of Scott vs. Williamson is also conspicuous in his early novels such as Thomas The Impostor (1923).
Tom Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823254309
- eISBN:
- 9780823260874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823254309.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter explores how Encuentro Dominicano, Creighton University’s study abroad/community-based learning program in the Dominican Republic, has transformed participants’ understanding of life in ...
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This chapter explores how Encuentro Dominicano, Creighton University’s study abroad/community-based learning program in the Dominican Republic, has transformed participants’ understanding of life in a developing country. Students are housed just outside of Santiago at theCentro de Educación para Salud Integral (Center for Integral Health and Education the ILAC Mission). In their four months there, students take 12-18hours of coursework, immerse in local communities for 3 weeks, and engage in community-based learning twice a week in Santiago. The program is a mix between the traditional approach to study abroad (living together, studying and traveling) and an immersion component that puts them in direct and prolonged contact with marginal communities who survive on subsistence farming and occasional outside employment. The ILAC Mission has built relationships in these communities, called campos, for over 35 years. Creighton students thus have the opportunity and privilege of living in some of these communities in order to experience and understand life in a developing country in a unique way.Less
This chapter explores how Encuentro Dominicano, Creighton University’s study abroad/community-based learning program in the Dominican Republic, has transformed participants’ understanding of life in a developing country. Students are housed just outside of Santiago at theCentro de Educación para Salud Integral (Center for Integral Health and Education the ILAC Mission). In their four months there, students take 12-18hours of coursework, immerse in local communities for 3 weeks, and engage in community-based learning twice a week in Santiago. The program is a mix between the traditional approach to study abroad (living together, studying and traveling) and an immersion component that puts them in direct and prolonged contact with marginal communities who survive on subsistence farming and occasional outside employment. The ILAC Mission has built relationships in these communities, called campos, for over 35 years. Creighton students thus have the opportunity and privilege of living in some of these communities in order to experience and understand life in a developing country in a unique way.
Gary k. Perry and Madeline Lovell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823254309
- eISBN:
- 9780823260874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823254309.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
What does social justice look like in an academic immersion course? This chapter describes a course that addresses the need to link volunteer service with a strong anchoring in social analysis by ...
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What does social justice look like in an academic immersion course? This chapter describes a course that addresses the need to link volunteer service with a strong anchoring in social analysis by combining a 15-hour on-campus component and a ten-day immersion experience in New Orleans where students worked in a variety of non-profits. Classes held on campus entailed a rigorous social analysis of race and social class in New Orleans, environmental impacts, the role of social and political systems, the lived experience of New Orleanians, and next steps – to rebuild or not? In New Orleans students did policy analysis, community strategic planning, grant writing, and environmental restoration as part of their participatory action research projects.Less
What does social justice look like in an academic immersion course? This chapter describes a course that addresses the need to link volunteer service with a strong anchoring in social analysis by combining a 15-hour on-campus component and a ten-day immersion experience in New Orleans where students worked in a variety of non-profits. Classes held on campus entailed a rigorous social analysis of race and social class in New Orleans, environmental impacts, the role of social and political systems, the lived experience of New Orleanians, and next steps – to rebuild or not? In New Orleans students did policy analysis, community strategic planning, grant writing, and environmental restoration as part of their participatory action research projects.
Jennifer M. Windt
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262028677
- eISBN:
- 9780262327466
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262028677.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Whereas chapters 7-10 are concerned with different types of dreams, Chapter 11 asks whether beneath this variability it is possible to identify something like a phenomenal core of dreaming that might ...
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Whereas chapters 7-10 are concerned with different types of dreams, Chapter 11 asks whether beneath this variability it is possible to identify something like a phenomenal core of dreaming that might hold the key towards a unified theoretical account. I propose a new working definition of dreams as immersive spatiotemporal hallucinations, according to which dreaming is inextricably connected to the phenomenology of selfhood and minimally involves a sense of spatiotemporal self-location. I propose that the investigation of spatiotemporal self-location can help identify and empirically ground the minimally sufficient conditions for phenomenal selfhood to arise, or for minimal phenomenal selfhood. I also introduce the new technical term oneiragogia, or experiences leading into sleep, and show how the conceptual framework proposed by the immersive-spatiotemporal-hallucination model of dreaming can be refined to describe the gradual transition from wakefulness, via sleep-onset imagery, to full-fledged dreams.Less
Whereas chapters 7-10 are concerned with different types of dreams, Chapter 11 asks whether beneath this variability it is possible to identify something like a phenomenal core of dreaming that might hold the key towards a unified theoretical account. I propose a new working definition of dreams as immersive spatiotemporal hallucinations, according to which dreaming is inextricably connected to the phenomenology of selfhood and minimally involves a sense of spatiotemporal self-location. I propose that the investigation of spatiotemporal self-location can help identify and empirically ground the minimally sufficient conditions for phenomenal selfhood to arise, or for minimal phenomenal selfhood. I also introduce the new technical term oneiragogia, or experiences leading into sleep, and show how the conceptual framework proposed by the immersive-spatiotemporal-hallucination model of dreaming can be refined to describe the gradual transition from wakefulness, via sleep-onset imagery, to full-fledged dreams.
M. J. Rymsza-Pawlowska
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469633862
- eISBN:
- 9781469633879
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469633862.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Museums of all kinds became more interactive and immersive. In two now exhibits, “Nation of Nations” and “1876,” the National Museum of American History placed viewers inside of historical milieus. ...
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Museums of all kinds became more interactive and immersive. In two now exhibits, “Nation of Nations” and “1876,” the National Museum of American History placed viewers inside of historical milieus. Meanwhile, exhibits in Philadelphia and Boston made use of technologies like computers and phone banks to personalize historical understanding and identification. Finally, living history sites like Plimoth Plantation and Colonial Williamsburg placed more emphasis on realism and authenticity in their presentations of the past.Less
Museums of all kinds became more interactive and immersive. In two now exhibits, “Nation of Nations” and “1876,” the National Museum of American History placed viewers inside of historical milieus. Meanwhile, exhibits in Philadelphia and Boston made use of technologies like computers and phone banks to personalize historical understanding and identification. Finally, living history sites like Plimoth Plantation and Colonial Williamsburg placed more emphasis on realism and authenticity in their presentations of the past.
Caroline van Eck and Miguel John Versluys
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- July 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190272333
- eISBN:
- 9780190272357
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190272333.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, History of Art: pre-history, BCE to 500CE, ancient and classical, Byzantine
The Hôtel de Beauharnais (1803–1806) in Paris was originally built by Germain Boffrand in 1713 for the Colbert family. It was redecorated by Jean Auguste Renard and others for Eugène de Beauharnais, ...
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The Hôtel de Beauharnais (1803–1806) in Paris was originally built by Germain Boffrand in 1713 for the Colbert family. It was redecorated by Jean Auguste Renard and others for Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s adopted son. It is one of the earliest monuments of Empire Style domestic architecture, combining Roman and Egyptian motifs. This analysis takes the concept of transformation and its related methods of adaptation and appropriation as its starting point to see what kinds of agency the Hôtel was intended to exercise, and how it functioned as immersive architecture within the poetics of eclecticism. In particular this paper examines the effect of the eighteenth-century theories of ornament by Julien-David Le Roy, Piranesi, and Jean-François Sobry.Less
The Hôtel de Beauharnais (1803–1806) in Paris was originally built by Germain Boffrand in 1713 for the Colbert family. It was redecorated by Jean Auguste Renard and others for Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s adopted son. It is one of the earliest monuments of Empire Style domestic architecture, combining Roman and Egyptian motifs. This analysis takes the concept of transformation and its related methods of adaptation and appropriation as its starting point to see what kinds of agency the Hôtel was intended to exercise, and how it functioned as immersive architecture within the poetics of eclecticism. In particular this paper examines the effect of the eighteenth-century theories of ornament by Julien-David Le Roy, Piranesi, and Jean-François Sobry.
Marianne Farina and Robert W. McChesney
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- August 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190677565
- eISBN:
- 9780190677596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190677565.003.0020
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies, World Religions
The Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (Berkeley) features an interreligious immersion program that offers students unique opportunities to study a religious tradition other than ...
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The Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (Berkeley) features an interreligious immersion program that offers students unique opportunities to study a religious tradition other than their own in local settings. The program focuses on the sacred teachings and historical developments of a tradition, along with comparative spiritual practices and experiences of religious communities. Recent destinations include India, Indonesia, the Middle East, and Nepal. Central to program goals is the conviction that the experience is formative. Students develop a deeper understanding of religious traditions, interreligious dialogue, and the importance of understanding the complex realities of these traditions in actual settings. All of these spheres of learning impact the students’ studies and ministry training.Less
The Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (Berkeley) features an interreligious immersion program that offers students unique opportunities to study a religious tradition other than their own in local settings. The program focuses on the sacred teachings and historical developments of a tradition, along with comparative spiritual practices and experiences of religious communities. Recent destinations include India, Indonesia, the Middle East, and Nepal. Central to program goals is the conviction that the experience is formative. Students develop a deeper understanding of religious traditions, interreligious dialogue, and the importance of understanding the complex realities of these traditions in actual settings. All of these spheres of learning impact the students’ studies and ministry training.
Robert M. Geraci
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199344697
- eISBN:
- 9780199374731
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199344697.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter offers a brief interpretation of Second Life and its history, culminating in three primary issues: the ways residents think about themselves and their avatars; the potential for ...
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This chapter offers a brief interpretation of Second Life and its history, culminating in three primary issues: the ways residents think about themselves and their avatars; the potential for residents to experience religious feelings online; and the construction and maintenance of social groups through the use of virtual objects and cyberspace connections. To explore these issues, the chapter follows debates in online identity (including that between immersion and augmentation) and applies actor-network theory to virtual world study. This chapter also explores some aspects of the author’s virtual ethnography in Second Life.Less
This chapter offers a brief interpretation of Second Life and its history, culminating in three primary issues: the ways residents think about themselves and their avatars; the potential for residents to experience religious feelings online; and the construction and maintenance of social groups through the use of virtual objects and cyberspace connections. To explore these issues, the chapter follows debates in online identity (including that between immersion and augmentation) and applies actor-network theory to virtual world study. This chapter also explores some aspects of the author’s virtual ethnography in Second Life.
