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Tom Brock is a lecturer in the department of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan. He holds a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Durham and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority. His research interests include social theory, digital culture and political protest. He has authored publications on video game consumption, critical pedagogy, student movements, and populism. Tom is the co-author of the book Structure, Culture and Agency: Selected Papers of Margaret Archer (Routledge). He currently co-convenes the BSA Realism and Social Research Group and steers the BSA Theory Study Group. Tom is also an Associate at the Centre for Social Ontology at the University of Warwick.
Tom is an avid computer gamer and sportsman. He spent his teenage years playing video games competitively during the emergence the now popular electronic-sports (or ‘e-Sports’) scene, attending some of the earliest ‘Insomnia’ or i-Series tournaments in the UK. This experience has influenced his research into the social psychology of work and play, particularly in terms of its relationship to changing employment and career opportunities.
Tom teaches core sociological theory to Level 4, 5 and 6 students. He also teaches a specialised unit on play and games as we all as the philosophy of social science and critical perspectives on digital society.
Tom sees education as key to both personal and professional growth. He is a strong believer that education supports the creation of a fairer, more just societies. Tom’s own journey through education has influenced this view. Starting with a working-class, state-school education in Birmingham, through to his experiences of sociology and psychology at Durham University, he has come to appreciate the hugely important role that sociological theory can play in helping people to understand and challenge inequalities in society.
University of Durham, PhD Sociology (+3 ESRC funded) 2008 -2011
University of Durham, MA Social Research Methods (Sociology) (ESRC recognised) 2007-2008
University of Durham BA Combined Honours in social Sciences (Psychology and Sociology) 2004-2007
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy 2014
Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Applied Social Sciences, University of Durham, 2011-2013.
HPL, School of Applied Social Sciences, University of Durham, 2008-2012.
- Media and Marketing REP for Sociology and Criminology
Level 4, Core, Exploring Modernity
Level 5, Core, Sociological Theory
Level 6, Sociological Imaginations (Video Games and Society)
Dissertation supervisor for UG and PG
Level 7, Global Transformations and Social Change (Critical Perspectives on Digital Society)
- External examiner Sheffield Hallam University (BA Sociology Programme)
Tom has written critically about professional gaming and the ‘darker’ side of play in two peer-reviewed journals. The first article: ‘Roger Caillois and eSports: On the Problems of Treating Play as Work’ is to be published in Games and Culture. The articles present a critical account of the impact that electronic sports has on human psychology. It argues that the pressures and demands of professional computer gaming orientate human cognition towards instrumental thinking, which in turn, feeds the exploitative ‘dog-eat-dog’ world of eSports. The article presents a number of case studies to show how treating play like work ‘corrupts’ the values that players attach to games plausibly leading to a) unhealthy behaviour in the form of obsession and/or b) risky, illegal behaviour, in the form of match-fixing. In the case of the latter, it is suggested that cheating can be considered as ‘survival strategy’ within such a highly competitive working environment. The second article: ‘Videogame Consumption: The Apophatic Dimension’ is to be published in the Journal of Consumer Culture. It considers how people derive satisfaction and motivation from the more negative aspects of video gameplay, particularly failure and loss. It argues that overcoming challenges in games is deeply rewarding, and may even help people deal with personal psychological issues, like anxiety or OCD. The article then extends this discussion to consider how typically problematic aspects of online gaming, e.g., ‘trolling’, can be rewarding through the creation of moments of cathartic laughter, which serve an important sociological purpose: to create and maintain social relationships.
T. Brock (2017). Videogame consumption: the apophatic dimension. Journal of Consumer Culture. 17(2), pp.167-183.
T. Brock, M. Carrigan, G. Scambler (2016). Structure, Culture and Agency Selected Papers of Margaret Archer. Routledge.
TGJ. Brock, M. Carrigan, (2014). Realism and Contingency: A Relational Realist Analysis of the UK Student Protests. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour.
T. Brock (2023). Welcome to Social Theory. Sage Publications Limited.
T. Brock, M. Carrigan, G. Scambler (2016). Structure, Culture and Agency Selected Papers of Margaret Archer. Routledge.
T. Brock, M. Carrigan, G. Scambler Structure, Culture and Agency.
MR. Johnson, T. Brock (2020). The ‘gambling turn’ in digital game monetization. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds. 12(2), pp.145-163.
T. Brock (2017). Videogame consumption: the apophatic dimension. Journal of Consumer Culture. 17(2), pp.167-183.
TGJ. Brock, M. Carrigan, (2014). Realism and Contingency: A Relational Realist Analysis of the UK Student Protests. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour.
T. Brock (2021). Counting Clicks. In: Global esports. Bloomsbury Academic,
T. Brock, M. Johnson (2020). Videogaming as Craft Consumption. In: DiGRA 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 DiGRA International Conference: Play Everywhere.
T. Brock, M. Johnson (2020). Gambling for Fashion: How Videogame Designers Capitalise on 'Status Ambivalence' within Videogame Play. In: DiGRA 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 DiGRA International Conference: Play Everywhere.
(2014). Book Review: The Reality of Social Construction. European Journal of Social Theory. 17, 199-204.
September 2016. Videogame Consumption: The Apophatic Dimension. Videogame Cultures 8th Global
Meeting Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom.
July 2016. Play as Craftsmanship in Computer Game Consumption: Towards a Sociology of Gaming as Craft Labour. International Sociological Association, Vienna, Austria.
July 2016. Man, Reflexivity and Gameplay: On Deriving a Sociology from Games. International
Socilogical Association, Vienna, Austria.
July 2016. The Craft of Gaming. Work and Play: An Interdisciplinary Conference. University of
Manchester, United Kingdom..
May 2016. Realism, Reflexivity and Games Consumer Culture. Centre for Social Ontology,
Reflexivity Forum. University of Warwick, United Kingdom..
August 2015. Fulfilling your Destiny? Towards a Relational Approach of Online Video Gaming. European Sociological Association Annual Conference, Prague, Czech Republic.
August 2015. Trust, participation and Inequality Amongst Young People Across Europe. European
Sociological Association Annual Conference, Prague, Czech Republic.
June 2015. Consuming Games: Desire, Loss and Delegated Agency. In the Flow: People, Media,
Materialities, Advanced Institute of Cultural Studies, Norkköping, Sweden.
June 2015. Video Gaming in Everyday Life: Reflexivity and Time. Investigating the Internal
Conversation. Centre for Social Ontology Workshop, University of Warwick, United Kingdom.
Invited Speaker at the University of Hull, Public Lectures Spring/Summer 2014 to talk on the
topic of dialectics and the social psychology of protest.
July 2014 (with G. Pollock and M. Ellison). Populism. Ideology and Contradiction: Mapping Young
People's Political Views. International Society of Political Psychology, Ergrife Palace Hotel, Rome.
July 2014 (with M. Carrigan). A Relational Realist Analysis of the UK Student Protests.
International Association of Critical Realism, Institute of Education, London, United Kingdom.
September 2013. Pedagogy of the Privileged: Elite Universities and Dialectical Contradictions in the
UK. BSA Realism Study Group, BSA Meeting Rooms, London, United Kingdom.
April 2013. Social movements, Critical realism and the Ethics of academic knowledge production, presented to the British Sociological Association Annual Conference, Grand Connaught Rooms, London, United Kingdom.
April 2012. Critical Realism and History: Exploring the relationship between the synchronic and
diachronic through D. Elder-Vass and E.P. Thompson, presented to the British Sociological Association Annual Conference, Leeds University, United Kingdom.