[ecrea] Playfull Participation. Call for papers and practice-bases papers and projects

Conjunctions: Transdisciplinary Journal of Cultural Participation

I am happy to announce a double call for papers on "Playful 
Participation". This issue will not only include academic papers, but 
also practice-based papers and projects. It is our hope that this 
initiative will further the dialogue between academics and the many 
people who engage with participatory and playful processes and practices 
in their everyday life and work.


Call for papers: Playful Participation

Deadline: Papers must be submitted by August 7, 2015

Play is a powerful source in people’s encounters with their everyday 
life, surroundings and society. Furthermore, play is increasingly 
intertwined with a range of different fields, from learning, exercising 
and city planning to creative work relations. Identities are built 
through playful interactions with games (Sutton-Smith, 1997) and social 
media, playful learning engages students’ abilities and competencies, 
and organisations use play as a motor for innovation and engagements.

The attempts to utilise playful behaviour in cultural, educational as 
well as organisational contexts reveal tensions when rational social 
organisation meets forms of playful participation that are less bound by 
instrumental obligations. The tensions between play and socio-political 
constraints have been a central theme for artists, designers and 
architects throughout the 20^th century. The Dutch artist Constant 
Nieuwenhuis, for instance, worked on his utopian city, New Babylon, for 
over a decade. In New Babylon play was intended to liberate man from 
work and the capitalist constraints of everyday life. In a similar vein, 
Flanagan (2009) has shown how play and games have been used, as 
‘critical play’, to disrupt and subvert systems of power and authority. 
In relation to the lucid city, Quintin Stevens has argued that play 
often involves ‘unfunctional, economically inefficient, impractical and 
socially unredemptive activities which are often unanticipated by 
designers, managers and other users’ (Stevens 2010). Following this, we 
draw on the notion of counterplay as a ludic or playful vitality that, 
as argued by Tom Apperley and Michael Dieter, holds transformative 
expressions and ‘speaks directly to the disruptive creation of the new 
through the reiterations of gaming’ (Apperley and Dieter 2010).

In this special issue we call for papers that investigate these inherent 
contradictions of playful participation, for instance by asking the 
fundamental question: What exactly is playful participation? But also: 
How might playful encounters motivate participation? To what extent can 
playful participation be utilised for e.g. cultural or educational 
purposes without losing sight of ‘being playful’? And how does 
playfulness challenge pre-established norms of participation? Papers 
might address questions of playful participation in relation to fields 
such as, but not limited to, playful culture, playful learning, playful 
cities and playful organisations.

8,000-word papers must be submitted by August 7, 2015. Please refer to 
www.conjunctions-tjcp.com <http://www.conjunctions-tjcp.com> for author 
guidelines.

Call for practice-based papers and projects: Playful Participation

Deadline: Practice-based papers must be submitted by August 7, 2015

/Conjunctions: Transdisciplinary Journal of Cultural Participation /aims 
to create a forum in which academics and practitioners can share 
reflections regarding the possibilities and difficulties involved in 
participatory practices. In this special issue we therefore seek 
practice-based papers and projects that report experiences with playful 
participation. Papers might report and document projects related to 
fields such as playful culture, playful learning, playful cities and 
playful organisations. Besides reporting on specific projects, the 
papers might discuss and reflect on how playfulness is utilised with or 
without success to motivate participation, as well as reflecting on how 
playful participation can be evaluated: When is playful participation 
successful?

Practice-based papers and projects can be in the form of 4,000-word 
papers or primarily visual documentation.


Please visit www.conjunctions-tjcp.com <http://www.conjunctions-tjcp.com>

All the best
Camilla

Camilla Møhring Reestorff
PhD, Assistant Professor
Dep. of Aesthetics and Communication
Aarhus University
Jens Chr. Skous Vej 2, 1485/536
8000 Aarhus C
(norcmr /at/ dac.au.dk) <mailto:(norcmr /at/ dac.au.dk)>

// Editor-in-chief of Conjunctions: Transdisciplinary Journal of 
Cultural Participation
www.conjunctions-tjcp.com <http://www.conjunctions-tjcp.com>