Abstract
The Playful Citizen is a comprehensive and thought-provoking exploration of the convergence of media and civic engagement, exploring the impact of technology and a networked culture on participation. Collecting broad and diverse contributions from sociology, new media studies, games studies, critical geography and political science across 20 distinct chapters, the volume brings unique, interdisciplinary perspectives to demonstrate the ways in which play has manifested itself inherently in our ways of thinking and being. Arguing that play is a key theoretical and methodological principle, the collection offers examples abound to support its arguments which are undeniably informative, stimulating and insightful.
One key strength of the collection is its introduction and organisation. It delineates limits, bringing clarity to and drawing boundaries in a complex and overlapping field. The collection proceeds in three main sections, ludo-literacies, ludo-epistemologies and ludo-politics, emphasising the triadic relationship between them. In this organisation, the main thrust of the argument is powerful. ‘Play’ becomes the theoretical principle, which is woven throughout the collection, bolstering support for adopting this ludic approach to citizenship as well as recognising it in current systems. While it is not possible to discuss the merits of each of the 20 chapters in detail, I shall highlight important contributions from each of the three sections within my assessment of the volume. The breadth of chapters and themes is to be commended, spanning disciplines, methodologies and ontologies.
The interdisciplinary approach of the book strengthens the depth of its argument, providing a rich and diverse view of the relationship between play and political engagement. Exploring the interconnectedness between play and knowledge in pursuit of productive relations, Schouten et al.’s chapter demonstrates this interdisciplinary approach, bringing with it methodological applications of playfulness which succeed in propelling the argument for play as both a theoretical and methodological principle. Using a research-through-design approach to engage questions of epistemology, ‘the library of the future’ case study allows Schouten et al. to move beyond explanation of playful knowledge production and engage the reader in it. This demonstrates the key argument of the chapter, that participatory culture shapes the epistemic frame, closing the gap between citizen and expert.
Additionally, the collection aims to offer ‘a kaleidoscopic view of the ludic potential of playful citizenship’ (p. 19). It is evident that the diverse contributions and strong argument for the conceptualisation of ‘playful citizenship’ are successful in meeting this aim. ‘Permanent Revolution: Occupying Democracy’ stands out in its fascinating and nuanced dissection of the potential of interactive and networked technologies with specific reference to the Occupy movement. Rushkoff’s ground-floor perspective is informative, identifying four pronounced shifts accompanying digitality and making a powerful argument that the Occupy movement ‘is not like a book or television, it is like the internet’ (p. 344). Highlighting a deconstruction of narrative inherent in digital media, Rushkoff demonstrates how Occupy was not simply changed by digital and interactive culture but modelled on it. Despite this, the difficulty in constructing such a broad and interdisciplinary collection is in drawing a coherent thread between them. Though play runs throughout each chapter, the collection offers several stand-out ideas, such as Rushkoff’s, which become obscured when considered as a whole. Though meeting its aim of exposing the reader to a kaleidoscope of ideas, it does so at the expense of a single, clear overall argument.
The collection is limited to some extent by viewing the citizen from a top-down perspective, as pieces on a chess board that can be moved and allowed to ‘play’. Hoofd’s cautious chapter, ‘Video Games and the Engaged Citizen: On the ambiguity of digital play’, offers an example of this. The chapter argues that the civic potential of games is wholly limited by ‘the logic of cybernetic prediction, oppression and the reproduction of the inequalities of global capitalism’ (p. 151). The argument assumes a homogeneity and naivety on the part of those who play games, that the narratives they embody, the conditions under which they are produced and simulation they represent are not apparent to players and critiqued in play. This perspective limits the analysis; however, there is merit in the demonstration of the need for immersion within communities to understand them, reiterating the claim that research on video games must centre players in its focus.
This collection sits at the edges of several disciplines and literatures on citizenship and democracy, carving a space for further work in this area. It provides a fascinating summary of the convergence of media and citizenship, putting play at the forefront of its analysis. Though limited to some extent by the lack of a complete and clear conclusion, it offers an excellent and broad springboard for future research. This collection is of interest to those concerned with democracy, engagement and digital culture from academics across disciplines to the interested citizen keen to understand how they too might become playful.
