Esports Associationalism - Archive ouverte HAL
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2019

Esports Associationalism

T. L. Taylor
  • Fonction : Auteur
Emma Witkowski
  • Fonction : Auteur

Résumé

Though competitive computer gaming, often known as esports, is largely constructed around commercial games, it has simultaneously had a long history as a grassroots driven activity deeply tied to the work of third party organizations and structures. Esports has operated within amateur & pro-am settings, and often within noncommercial frameworks. It has also been meaningfully tied to regional contexts. These have ranged from informal associations of players who root their competitive practices around their school, region, country to national policies and infrastructures (such as in South Korea) and national tournaments (for example via the World Cyber Games structure that was akin to an Olympic model). Though commercial stakeholders (such as Blizzard Entertainment or Riot Games) currently play a dominant role within esports, third parties remain an important node, both historically and as they reformulate themselves in our new commercial moment. This panel asks: What are the histories of third party esports associations and what are the current emerging roles and practices of the non-profit esports association in particular? As a movement and construct, associationalism has been called a “genuine European social theory” (Kaspersen & Ottesen 2001), which “seeks to expand the scope of democratic governance in civil society” (Hirst 2002 p. 409). Sports and leisure clubs have been ongoing structural forms in the development of new forms of associativity and central to understanding concepts of communitarianism, social capital though leisure practices, and the pivotal role of the third sector in democratic society (Frazer 2000, Kidd & Donnelly 2000). From this perspective, the organizational and ideological frameworks propping up recognized sport in society are shaped by state, market, and public sectors in different stages of involvement and retreat (Eichberg 2009). Periodic research on the rise and role of esports associations appears in the scholarship of Dal Young Jin (2010) and T.L. Taylor (2012), with attention to the foremost associations emerging in the early 2000’s out of South Korea (namely, the Korean e- Sports Association and the International eSports Federation). The historical (and continuing) work of both KeSPA and the IeSF are foundational for most Western international esports associations, as structures and practices (and to some extent ideologies) established within this dominant era of Korean esports are replicated or contested by associations under formalization. While the durability and presence of South Korean esports on esports associationalism offers a historical pivot for sports associationalism writ large, continued development of esports associationalism warrants further exploration. Over the last decade, esports drifted towards this sectorial trifecta of state/market/public in several regions, with esports associations moving from independent grassroots entities into formalized structural relationships, where esports governance crosses various institutional stakeholders, with diverging intentions and results (Taylor 2012). The serious growth in the commercialization of esports in just the last handful of years has provided additional fuel to the development of these organizations world-wide. The international rise of recognized esports associations offers an opportunity to explore the role of formally organized digital games-centric cultural institutions which have rapidly developed horizontal relationships with independent, state, and commercial groups. With the rise of recognized esports associations internationally, this panel asks how associativity (club organisations outside of the family – See Szymanski 2006) is rendered across national esports associations, and what regionally located tensions have emerged across the esports sectorial trifecta. Perhaps most notably, the rise of these “alternative” associations represent a challenge to existing sports models, suggesting a range of activities, environments, and relationships which belong to and extend regional conceptualisations of “sport”. Given esports associations are cultural constructs with local and global demands, this panel is anchored in the researcher’s everyday participation and fieldwork across different organizations, notably France Esports and the Australian Esports Association. Additionally, the Japan esports Union (JeSU) has been invited to participate and share their experiences of regional sector growth. Each association represents different stages of organizational experience, development, and recognition as esports within society. The panel engages with familiar issues and distinctions surrounding the role of esports and the third sector, where esports is still finding its political place. Following Raymond Williams (1977), the panel will explore residual, dominant, and emerging processes surfacing at the edges of the developing relationships and structures bridinging state, market, and public sectors. These include the cultivation of domesticglobal esports association values, reconciling with esports as sports (within existing government sports frameworks), alongside of regionally locating inclusivity practices and what “sports for all” looks like from within the associational framework. From these distinct regional profiles, both unique and common structures and practices propping up esports associational culture are made visible, and a broader understanding of esports and the role of computer games in society is made possible (Ibsen, Nichols & Elmose-Osterlund 2016).
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Dates et versions

hal-04015481 , version 1 (05-03-2023)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04015481 , version 1

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Nicolas Besombes, T. L. Taylor, Emma Witkowski. Esports Associationalism. Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA), Ritsumeikan University, Aug 2019, Kyoto, Japan. ⟨hal-04015481⟩
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