This reader contributes to the sociology of gambling, and offers a variety of sociological approa... more This reader contributes to the sociology of gambling, and offers a variety of sociological approaches, ranging from classical sociological analyses of gambling to contemporary sociological approaches to risk.
While there has been an unprecedented explosion of legalized gambling in Canada - particularly in... more While there has been an unprecedented explosion of legalized gambling in Canada - particularly in the form of casinos and electronic games - the public has become increasingly aware of addictions to gambling. Casino State is a timely collection that examines the controversial role of the state as a promoter of gambling activities often against the best interest of its citizens.
Investigating the tensions that arise from the relationships between gambling and morality, risk, social policy, crime, and youth problem gambling, these essays draw upon a range of disciplines to consider the economic benefits and social costs of legalized gambling. A contemporary study that raises important questions about state conduct, precarious policy issues, public health, and addictions, Casino State provides a necessary and comprehensive overview of the central issues related to the legalization and expansion of gambling in Canada.
This article explores the legalization and marketing of recreational cannabis in Canada, specific... more This article explores the legalization and marketing of recreational cannabis in Canada, specifically the province of Nova Scotia, that has extended state monopoly over sales. Beginning with Howard Becker’s classic analysis of “becoming a marijuana user,” this ethnographic investigation of the first day of state cannabis sales utilizes and extends Bourdieusian analyses, particularly by showing how “symbolic violence” and “taste distinctions” work beyond overt class reproduction to establish state classifications and rituals. The practices we observe show state formation in action at the point of sale, including education, warning, prohibition, and promotion. As we demonstrate, the state marketing of cannabis works to invite emotional identification toward becoming the state consumer as an embodied habitus. The citizen is not just redeemed morally by the legal recategorization of cannabis but brought into a new subject position as good consumer citizen at the moment of ritual consumption, that is, brought into a “tasteful state.”
This article investigates the rise and scandalous fall of celebrity host Jian Ghomeshi within the... more This article investigates the rise and scandalous fall of celebrity host Jian Ghomeshi within the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). We draw upon Althusser’s conception of the Ideological State Apparatus to analyse how the CBC made use of Jian Ghomeshi as a state celebrity to ‘hail’ the audience/citizen and contribute to the CBC’s ‘institutional charisma’. The discussion also demonstrates the dependence of the CBC on types of legitimate authority in its efforts to manage the scandal and invoke its cultural and moral authority in the Canadian national–cultural context. We demonstrate that the CBC made use of its status as a rational–legal employer and as a moral guardian of the public sphere to compartmentalize itself against scandal and retrench as a public institution.
This paper examines the recent Seven Wonders of Canada project conducted by Canada’s “official br... more This paper examines the recent Seven Wonders of Canada project conducted by Canada’s “official broadcaster,” the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). This project sought to collect Canadian identity by inviting expert judges and its audience to collect essentially Canadian “things.” By analyzing the unfolding of the project, we found that while it was broadly successful in terms of participation, it also generated audience resistance because it imposed a rational-legal and elitist administration designed to socialize Canadian self-desire. Ultimately we found that instead of generating “wonder,” the project generated disenchantment and the ritual reinscription of CBC as official and appropriate object of Canadian desire.
This reader contributes to the sociology of gambling, and offers a variety of sociological approa... more This reader contributes to the sociology of gambling, and offers a variety of sociological approaches, ranging from classical sociological analyses of gambling to contemporary sociological approaches to risk.
While there has been an unprecedented explosion of legalized gambling in Canada - particularly in... more While there has been an unprecedented explosion of legalized gambling in Canada - particularly in the form of casinos and electronic games - the public has become increasingly aware of addictions to gambling. Casino State is a timely collection that examines the controversial role of the state as a promoter of gambling activities often against the best interest of its citizens.
Investigating the tensions that arise from the relationships between gambling and morality, risk, social policy, crime, and youth problem gambling, these essays draw upon a range of disciplines to consider the economic benefits and social costs of legalized gambling. A contemporary study that raises important questions about state conduct, precarious policy issues, public health, and addictions, Casino State provides a necessary and comprehensive overview of the central issues related to the legalization and expansion of gambling in Canada.
This article explores the legalization and marketing of recreational cannabis in Canada, specific... more This article explores the legalization and marketing of recreational cannabis in Canada, specifically the province of Nova Scotia, that has extended state monopoly over sales. Beginning with Howard Becker’s classic analysis of “becoming a marijuana user,” this ethnographic investigation of the first day of state cannabis sales utilizes and extends Bourdieusian analyses, particularly by showing how “symbolic violence” and “taste distinctions” work beyond overt class reproduction to establish state classifications and rituals. The practices we observe show state formation in action at the point of sale, including education, warning, prohibition, and promotion. As we demonstrate, the state marketing of cannabis works to invite emotional identification toward becoming the state consumer as an embodied habitus. The citizen is not just redeemed morally by the legal recategorization of cannabis but brought into a new subject position as good consumer citizen at the moment of ritual consumption, that is, brought into a “tasteful state.”
This article investigates the rise and scandalous fall of celebrity host Jian Ghomeshi within the... more This article investigates the rise and scandalous fall of celebrity host Jian Ghomeshi within the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). We draw upon Althusser’s conception of the Ideological State Apparatus to analyse how the CBC made use of Jian Ghomeshi as a state celebrity to ‘hail’ the audience/citizen and contribute to the CBC’s ‘institutional charisma’. The discussion also demonstrates the dependence of the CBC on types of legitimate authority in its efforts to manage the scandal and invoke its cultural and moral authority in the Canadian national–cultural context. We demonstrate that the CBC made use of its status as a rational–legal employer and as a moral guardian of the public sphere to compartmentalize itself against scandal and retrench as a public institution.
This paper examines the recent Seven Wonders of Canada project conducted by Canada’s “official br... more This paper examines the recent Seven Wonders of Canada project conducted by Canada’s “official broadcaster,” the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). This project sought to collect Canadian identity by inviting expert judges and its audience to collect essentially Canadian “things.” By analyzing the unfolding of the project, we found that while it was broadly successful in terms of participation, it also generated audience resistance because it imposed a rational-legal and elitist administration designed to socialize Canadian self-desire. Ultimately we found that instead of generating “wonder,” the project generated disenchantment and the ritual reinscription of CBC as official and appropriate object of Canadian desire.
This paper considers the implications of the 2010 cancellation of the Canada mandatory long-form ... more This paper considers the implications of the 2010 cancellation of the Canada mandatory long-form census in terms of citizenship and the citizen-state relation. Inspecting census questions, Statistics Canada publications, and the arguments of ethnocultural groups pushing for reinstatement of the census, we find a version of citizenship rooted in ethnocultural group membership and the mosaic metaphor. The second part of this paper seeks an historical explanation for the cultural shift away from this version of citizenship that allowed for the cancellation of the census. Here we discuss the state monopolization of gambling. Inspecting advertising and government policy we find a rhetoric of counting that encourages a risk-assessing, individualized, neoliberal, and utilitarian citizen.
THE AGE OF CHANCE 'This is a wonderful volume—smartly written, engaging and filled with insi... more THE AGE OF CHANCE 'This is a wonderful volume—smartly written, engaging and filled with insights.' Steven Seidman, State University of New York From the Apophoreta of Imperial Rome to the ersatz grandeur of Las Vegas, from ritual divination to weekly lottery fever, ...
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Books by Jim Cosgrave
Investigating the tensions that arise from the relationships between gambling and morality, risk, social policy, crime, and youth problem gambling, these essays draw upon a range of disciplines to consider the economic benefits and social costs of legalized gambling. A contemporary study that raises important questions about state conduct, precarious policy issues, public health, and addictions, Casino State provides a necessary and comprehensive overview of the central issues related to the legalization and expansion of gambling in Canada.
Papers by Jim Cosgrave
Investigating the tensions that arise from the relationships between gambling and morality, risk, social policy, crime, and youth problem gambling, these essays draw upon a range of disciplines to consider the economic benefits and social costs of legalized gambling. A contemporary study that raises important questions about state conduct, precarious policy issues, public health, and addictions, Casino State provides a necessary and comprehensive overview of the central issues related to the legalization and expansion of gambling in Canada.