The sociology of risk and gambling reader / edited by James F. Cosgrave.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Fate, risk and security / Anthony Giddens -- Risk society revisited : theory, politics and research programmes / Ulrich Beck -- Risk and governmentality / Deborah Lupton -- Gambling as a sociological problem / David Downes ... [et al.] -- The pursuit of chance / Gerda Reith -- On some motifs in Baudelaire / Walter Benjamin -- Observations on gambling in a lower class setting / Irving Zola -- Entertainment or imprudence? An ethnography of female bingo players / R. Maclure ... [et al.] -- Playing with hope and despair : Bourdieu and the habitus of horse betting / Joan Allen -- Notes on a theory of gambling / Walter Benjamin -- The adventurer : 1911 / Georg Simmel -- Where the action is / Erving Goffman -- The experience of play / Gerda Reith -- Good losers / Frederick and Steven Barthelme -- State lotteries and the legitimation of inequality / David Nibert -- From the law of insurance to law of lottery : an exploration of the changing composition of the British state / Mike Neary and Graham Taylor -- The pathological gambler and the government of gambling / Alan F. Collins -- Busted flush : South Carolina's video-poker operators run a political machine / David Plotz.

"This reader contributes to the sociology of gambling, and offers a variety of sociological approaches to the subject areas, ranging from classical sociological analyses of gambling to contemporary sociological approaches to risk, including pieces from the sociology of risk, risk society, and "governmentality" perspectives. The reader includes sections on: sociological approaches to risk and gambling; gambling histories and sub-cultures; action and play; the state, regulation, and politics. Contributors include: Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck, Deborah Upton, Erving Goffman, Georg Simmel, and Walter Benjamin."--Publisher description.

Machine converted from AACR2 source record.