convergence as theorized by Henry Jenkins and used by Mark Deuze to describe contemporary logic of
media production. We offer a way to specify the convergence culture logic at work as described by
Deuze by analyzing the cultural leisure performed by the video game worker of Montreal. We will see
that the cultural repertoire of game workers participates to the contemporary culture of convergence.
Video game workers’ culture and convergence culture logic
The researches done on new media workers were interested mostly in creative process or new
organisational forms that favour strong innovations (Grabher 2002; Grabher 2002). As already pointed
out by Jeffcutt and Pratt, there is a lack of strategic knowledge about the relationships and networks
that enable and sustain the creative process in a knowledge economy (Jeffcutt and Pratt 2002, p.228).
Rather than studying the organisational forms that contribute to innovation, some researchers seek to
understand the context that enables creativity and innovation to take over (Lundvall and Johnson, 1992;
Morgan, 1995). As pointed by Jeffcutt and Pratt (2002, p.226), this context as been conceptualized as
‘spillovers’ or ‘externalities’ in orthodox or neoclassical economy (Krugman, 1991) or as
‘embeddedness’ (Granovetter, 1985) in economic sociology.
This line of inquiry has been further
investigated (and seems to fit our data). But little research has been done on the leisure or cultural
activities of creative workers in new media sectors.
Yet this cultural leisure seems to participate to the
2
‘Embeddedness’ refers to the general social context in which the economic activity takes place. Hence Granovetter studied
how weak ties (informal social encounters, especially outside the work place) participate directly to economic activities. See
Granovetter, M. S. (1983). "The Strength of the Weak Tie: Revisited." Sociological Theory 1: 201-233, Granovetter, M. S.
(1985). "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness." American Journal of Sociology 91:
481-510.
3
Conversely, there is a literature on the careers typical of new media workers, described as boundaryless and
individualized. See Arthur, M. B. and D. M. Rousseau (1996). The boundaryless career : a new employment principle for a
new organizational era. New York ; Toronto, Oxford University Press. Jensen, T. E. and A. Westenholz (2004). Identity in
the age of the new economy : life in temporary and scattered work practices. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA, Edward
Elgar.
2
Convention