Gambling Addiction Study - Ideas for Theorists

[Sweet Pee]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently working on a study which focuses on gambling addiction. There are 4 areas which I'm analysing using the work of prominent figures of sociology. The areas are:

Money - Karl Marx, Georg Simmel, ? ?

Identity - Erving Goffman, Howard Becker, Michel Foucault, ?

Social Networks (friends, family, colleagues, etc.) - ? ? ? ?

Attitudes & Beliefs (towards gambling, addiction, etc) - ? ? ? ?

I'm trying to get 3 or 4 'big' names from the world of sociology for each section. As you can see I have a few, but I'd be really grateful for any suggestions for more theorists to fill in the blanks.

Thanks for your time, any help is really appreciated.

[gilbertrollins]

Hi Sweet Pea.  I'm not sure what your research question is, but covering big-name bases isn't usually how one approaches a problem theoretically.  Or maybe I should just speak for myself.  My most insightful stuff (a dubious distinction!) hits me when I see an empirical situation like gambling addiction and am then reminded of some theory I read somewhere, which was at one time applied to a different but similar empirical situation.  

 

I don't really see how Marx and Simmel have anything to say about gambling addiction. 

[yhakak]

I would certainly agree, the theoretical framework is a result of looking at the empirical case and deciding what the best lens is...

however, Simmel's framework about the philosophy of money could be an interesting counterpoint to gambling addition, i.e.the anti-financialization of money...

 

 

Hi Sweet Pea.  I'm not sure what your research question is, but covering big-name bases isn't usually how one approaches a problem theoretically.  Or maybe I should just speak for myself.  My most insightful stuff (a dubious distinction!) hits me when I see an empirical situation like gambling addiction and am then reminded of some theory I read somewhere, which was at one time applied to a different but similar empirical situation.  

 

I don't really see how Marx and Simmel have anything to say about gambling addiction. 

[JSM040704]

I agree with everything above. 

Basically, researching sociology is just like anything else. It's great to talk about the big names in the classroom, but it will do you no good when you are producing new work. Trust me, your audience will probably know about Focault, and Goffman, and yatta yatta. It is your job instead to catagorize what is talked about right now. Who is talking about gambling, how do they talk about gambling, can gambling become addicting, what other factors lead to gambling?

 

Also, I don't mean to bust your chops, but be careful when you talking about the word "Addiction" in the sociology world. Addiction is more of a psychological terminology rather than a sociological one. This is why it is extremely important to research current discussion on the topic of gambling. NOT gambling addiction. JUST gambling. AND MAYBE gambling abuse. Trust me, I started with addiction and I pretty much was told to start over.

 

Here's what you should do first and foremost. 1. Go on computer that has access to some academic journals(for example but definitely not limited to, ProQuest). 2. Do not actually use ProQuest 3. Instead go on GoogleScholar and type in the word gambling and limit it to Sociology articles. 4. Find works that frequently get cited by other articles.(GoogleScholar will tell you this)5. Take a cursory glace at the article(not just the abstract) and find what themes are coming out of the articles 6. Write these themes down 7. Search these themes 8. Find frequently cited articles 9. Write down those themes 10. Repeat 6 through 9 a few times

(I like google scholar, but you can using something different.)

 

It can be a real pain the butt, but thankfully you are not presenting a ground breaking way to study sociology. You don't have to go into a new epistemology or read into philosophical debates of the science. Instead, you just want to talk about gambling and abuse. It's your job as a researcher to inform what has already been said, study a facet that hasn't been looked into or maintain the current literature or even question the current literature, provide data to back up the claim, and conclude.

Edited September 17, 2013 by JSM040704

[alesso]

Durkheim-  Anomie  more of the strain that came later but that is pretty much the go to theory for all abberant behavior. It is a reaction to not being able to obtain what one desires through normal means

[stefyeber]

Gambling addiction is a rather difficult issue, which in my opinion has no solution. In my opinion, this cannot be prevented, the only thing that can help is restrictive measures, such as playing free games or using bonuses that many online casinos offer.

[stefyeber]

On 7/1/2020 at 4:34 PM, stefyeber said:

Gambling addiction is a rather difficult issue, which in my opinion has no solution. In my opinion, this cannot be prevented, the only thing that can help is restrictive measures, such as playing free games or using bonuses that many online casinos offer.

If we talk about bonuses and free games, I forgot to say that there is a site that is the best for this. It is an excellent "guide" in the field of gambling. I highly recommend it.