Making addiction, making gender: A feminist performativity analysis of Kakavas v Crown Melbourne Limited

This paper examines the landmark 2013 judgment of the Australian High Court in Kakavas v Crown Melbourne Limited. This case focused on the activities of Australian businessman Harry Kakavas, a regular gambler at Melbourne’s Crown casino. Kakavas argued that he was a pathological gambler unconscionab...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Seear, Kate
Format: Journal Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Australasia 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/21487
_version_ 1848750603966087168
author Seear, Kate
author_facet Seear, Kate
author_sort Seear, Kate
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper examines the landmark 2013 judgment of the Australian High Court in Kakavas v Crown Melbourne Limited. This case focused on the activities of Australian businessman Harry Kakavas, a regular gambler at Melbourne’s Crown casino. Kakavas argued that he was a pathological gambler unconscionably exploited by the casino. Using feminist and queer performativity theory, as well as a science and technology studies (STS) approach to the law, I explore how the court constituted gambling addiction and gender in the case. Via John Law’s notion of ‘collateral realities’, I also examine the way that legal judgments ostensibly dealing with one object can simultaneously materialise other realities, a point with relevance well beyond the present example. I conclude with reflections on the implications of this analysis for law, policy and practice in the study of addiction and gender.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T07:39:28Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-21487
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T07:39:28Z
publishDate 2015
publisher Taylor & Francis Australasia
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-214872017-09-13T15:59:26Z Making addiction, making gender: A feminist performativity analysis of Kakavas v Crown Melbourne Limited Seear, Kate This paper examines the landmark 2013 judgment of the Australian High Court in Kakavas v Crown Melbourne Limited. This case focused on the activities of Australian businessman Harry Kakavas, a regular gambler at Melbourne’s Crown casino. Kakavas argued that he was a pathological gambler unconscionably exploited by the casino. Using feminist and queer performativity theory, as well as a science and technology studies (STS) approach to the law, I explore how the court constituted gambling addiction and gender in the case. Via John Law’s notion of ‘collateral realities’, I also examine the way that legal judgments ostensibly dealing with one object can simultaneously materialise other realities, a point with relevance well beyond the present example. I conclude with reflections on the implications of this analysis for law, policy and practice in the study of addiction and gender. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/21487 10.1080/13200968.2015.1031932 Taylor & Francis Australasia restricted
spellingShingle Seear, Kate
Making addiction, making gender: A feminist performativity analysis of Kakavas v Crown Melbourne Limited
title Making addiction, making gender: A feminist performativity analysis of Kakavas v Crown Melbourne Limited
title_full Making addiction, making gender: A feminist performativity analysis of Kakavas v Crown Melbourne Limited
title_fullStr Making addiction, making gender: A feminist performativity analysis of Kakavas v Crown Melbourne Limited
title_full_unstemmed Making addiction, making gender: A feminist performativity analysis of Kakavas v Crown Melbourne Limited
title_short Making addiction, making gender: A feminist performativity analysis of Kakavas v Crown Melbourne Limited
title_sort making addiction, making gender: a feminist performativity analysis of kakavas v crown melbourne limited
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/21487