Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15176/vol50no108
Working the Play: How a Card Game Negotiates Perceptions of Work and Productivity
Andrea Pisac
; Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK
Abstract
ased on the ethnographic study of the card game Bela, this paper rethinks the intersections and interstices between game and non-game contexts, challenging the presumption that play is unproductive and non-materialistic. By embedding the rules of the game into its socio-cultural context, the paper identifies a symbolic space of shared stories, emotions and personal interests that coexist with, modify and lubricate the rules of the game. By considering play as a way of engaging the world, rather than a categorically identified, bounded and thus inconsequential activity, I explore how the open-endedness of the card game relates to broader life experiences, and particularly how it shapes and influences perceptions of work and productivity.
Keywords
play; work; productivity; contingency; playfulness as disposition
Hrčak ID:
105577
URI
Publication date:
10.7.2013.
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