Tenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

Rationalization has been considered and presented by numerous sociologists as a unilateral unidimensional process that leads to bureaucratic expansion, increased efficiency, and disenchantment of the world. Based on this position, the sociology of games developed theories positing that a society’s rationalization is reflected in the games that the members of society play. According to these theories, games played in modern societies that underwent rationalization tend to be regulated by more complex laws and rules than games played in pre-modern societies that did not undergo a similar process. The aim of this study is to examine the penetration of images of rationality into the field of games of chance and gambling in Israel. The examination will allow us to address the question of whether rationalization and its images have gained purchase in the field of gambling in Israel or whether the rationalization process was compelled to adjust and consider the unique features of this field. A qualitative semiotic analysis of posters, advertisements, and flyers published by various actors in the gambling field indicates that images of rationalization have penetrated the field in a dialectical process that engaged the gaming features of gambling. These dialectics allowed images of order, systematism, and routine, which rationalization introduced into the field, to co-exist alongside excitement, spontaneity and playfulness of the game. The discussion of study findings focuses on this dialectical process and a qualitative interpretation of its representations.