[Commlist] "This Time it’s for all the Marbles. Towards Social Justice in Digital Gaming" - CfP for a special issue of Gamevironments

Patrick Prax ((Patrick.prax /at/ speldesign.uu.se)) is guest-editing a special 
issue of Gamevironments with the title "This Time it’s for all the 
Marbles. Towards Social Justice in Digital Gaming"

The DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION is the 1st of February and you can find the
full CFP here: https://www.gamevironments.uni-bremen.de/call-for-papers/

Digital games are a central element of contemporary media ecology both
in terms of playing and making games, but also as an anchor point for
communities and cultures. The impact games and gaming have on our
societies is both hard to define and undeniable. They extend towards
increased access to cultural production and creativity, allowing people
to be social in isolation, and to expand the social imaginary. At the
same time, they are related to exploitation and precarity, isolate
people under the guise of sociability, and are connected to xenophobic
and bigoted movements that threaten democratic values and civic liberties.

While these are not issues that are exclusive to games it can be argued
that gaming as a culture, community, and environment warrant attention
here because of their central role for contemporary culture, creative
industries, and digital platforms. The gaming community has regrettably
been the training ground for alt-right politics that are successfully
being used globally to de-stabilize democratic discourses and it is
still a central recruitment pool for said radical movements. This makes
it important to investigate the environment of games and gaming for
understanding the current political changes towards xenophobia, white
supremacy, nationalism, and fascism where games and game communities are
a puzzle piece that should not be left out of the picture. The issue
does see games here as a part of contemporary political and cultural
zeitgeist, but also as material media that is produced and consumed in
specific socio-economic context. This means that also perspectives that
center on the economic and political conditions of game production and
marketing are seen as relevant to these questions. That said, games and
game culture are also spaces that brim with potential for critical and
inclusive work. Game workers as well as the communities around games can
be the creative anchor-point, the ground zero, or the staging area for
organizing towards collective action towards more respectful and
equitable futures.

This special issue aims to examine the ways in which games and gaming
are connected to and potentially accelerate undemocratic and bigoted
movements while high-lighting projects and perspectives from games that
contribute to social justice.

Submissions from, communication and media scholars are welcome. No
payment from the authors will be required.


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