In the last decade, digital media technologies and developments have given rise to exciting new forms of ludic, or playful, engagements of citizens in cultural and societal issues. From the Occupy movement to playful city-making to the gameful designs of the Obama 2008 and Trump 2016 presidential campaigns, and the rise of citizen science and ecological games, this book shows how play is a key theoretical, methodological, and practical principle for comprehending such new forms of civic engagement in a mediatized culture. The Playful Citizen explores how and through what media we are becoming more playful as citizens and how this manifests itself in our ways of doing, living, and thinking. We offer a pluralistic answer to such questions by bringing together scholars from different fields such as game and play studies, social sciences, and media and culture studies.
“A completely innovative aspect is the agenda of analyzing media and citizenship in contemporary culture through the lens of play. Media studies, game studies, and cultural studies will benefit from this, as will political practice.” – Mathias Fuchs, principal investigator at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana University Lüneburg, editor of Rethinking Gamification “What a splendid edited collection, a thoughtful and well-researched anthology that both summarizes the state of the art at the intersection between play and political theories, and presents insights on future lines of research.” – Miguel Sicart, professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, author of Play Matters
This volume, edited by René Glas, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Joost Raessens, and Imar de Vries was published by Amsterdam University Press in 2019 and is available both in print and through open access HERE.
Table of Contents:
1. “The playful citizen: An introduction” René Glas, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Joost Raessens, and Imar de Vries Part
2. “Engagement in play, engagement in politics: Playing political video games” Joyce Neys and Jeroen Jansz
3. “Analytical game design: Game-making as a cultural technique in a gamified society” Stefan Werning
4. “Re-thinking the social documentary” William Uricchio
5. “Collapsus, or how to make players become ecological citizens” Joost Raessens
6. “The broken toy tactic: Clockwork worlds and activist games” Anne-Marie Schleiner
7. “Video games and the engaged citizen: On the ambiguity of digital play” Ingrid Hoofd
8. “Public laboratory: Play and civic engagement” Jessica Breen, Shannon Dosemagen, Don Blair, and Liz Barry
9. “Sensing the air and experimenting with environmental citizenship” Jennifer Gabrys
10. “Biohacking: Playing with technology” Stephanie de Smale
11. “Ludo-epistemology: Playing with the rules in citizen science games” René Glas and Sybille Lammes
12. “The playful scientist: Stimulating playful communities for science practice” Ben Schouten, Erik van der Spek, Daniël Harmsen, and Ellis Bartholomeus
13. “Laborious playgrounds: Citizen science games as new modes of work/play in the digital age” Sonia Fizek and Anne Dippel
14. “On participatory politics as a game changer and the politics of participation” Mercedes Bunz
15. “Playing with politics: Memory, orientation, and tactility” Sam Hind
16. “Meaningful inefficiencies: Resisting the logic of technological efficiency in the design of civic systems” Eric Gordon and Stephen Walter
17. “Permanent revolution: Occupying democracy” Douglas Rushkoff
18. “The playful city: Citizens making the smart city” Michiel de Lange
19. “Dissent at a distance” The Janissary Collective (Mark Deuze and Lindsay Ems)
20. “Playing with power: Casual politicking as a new frame for political analysis” Alex Gekker
ISBN: 9789462984523
