Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies - Research Seminars

Teams (Term 1) Wednesdays 4pm-5pm

3^rd November 2021 Dr Paolo Ruffino, University of Liverpool [link to meeting] 

‘Union organising and workers’ visibility in the Videogame Industry’ 

In this talk, Paolo Ruffino will introduce his research surrounding the labour union IWGB Game Workers, the first and largest union of the UK videogame industry. The videogame sector has been traditionally averse to unionization. Its compulsory network sociality, and the belief that game-work should be passion-driven, limit the expression of discontent and proposals for structural change. Drawing on 2 years of participatory observation and interviews with board members, Ruffino will discuss how the union IWGB Game Workers has been introducing strategies that allow members to be more closely in control of their visibility with bosses and peers, and the implications of union organising in a sector that relies on the promotional cultures of social media.

Paolo Ruffino is Lecturer in Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of Future Gaming: Creative Interventions in Video Game Culture (Goldsmiths and MIT Press, 2018), editor of Rethinking Gamification (Meson Press, 2014), and Independent Videogames: Cultures, Networks, Techniques and Politics (Routledge, 2021). His research focuses on independent videogame development, labor unions in the videogame industry, and the emergence of nonhuman and posthuman play in the digital age. Follow @paoloruffino