Playing work,or gamification as stultification

ABSTRACT

The contrast between work and play as activities collapses if play is seen, following anthropologist Thomas Malaby, as a disposition towards the indeterminate. Once play is positioned as a state of mind, activities that constitute work need not be disjunct from playful behavior. Yet for most workers, work is rarely if ever playful, and attempts to import play behavior into the workplace (‘gamification’) do not result in greater playfulness. Part of this problem results from specific aesthetic values for games having dominated both work and play. As Roger Caillois warned half a century ago, sport-like values have increasingly saturated the culture of the overdeveloped world. Meanwhile, gamification processes have only been able to export task-focussed reward structures from the domain of play – practices that descend from Dungeons & Dragons, but that have been denuded of their playful qualities. In parallel to the gamification of work has been the gamification of games, namely an increasing emphasis on tasks to structure video game play (e.g., achievements), and thus make them more compelling yet less playful. In so much as this entails forcing particular patterns of understanding onto both players and workers, this makes gamification a parallel to Jacques Rancière's stultification in education: a binding of wills instead of an emancipation. If we want a world where work could be more playful, we must begin by breaking the cultural dominance of sport-like and task-like aesthetics of play, and endeavour to overcome the underlying fears that prevent work from being played.     

‘Roots and wings’: an exploration of intergenerational play

Play is an important part of life, not only during childhood but also into adulthood and later life. While scholars have emphasized the physical, social, psychological, and cognitive benefits of play for children, few researchers have explored the role of play in later life. One context in which aging adults find opportunities to play is with their grandchildren. This qualitative study employed visual and text analyses to explore the experience of intergenerational play from the perspectives of grandchildren and grandparents. Findings indicated that both groups of participants were motivated to engage in play together, negotiated constraints to experience play, and received various benefits from playing with their grandparent or grandchild. Recommendations are provided to assist professionals in programming for intergenerational play and for further exploration of the motivations, benefits, and constraints associated with intergenerational play.     

Agency and structure in the life-world of Aboriginal children in Central Australia

This paper offers ethnographic observations on the place of “agency” in the lives of Aboriginal children in Central Australia. The focus is on children's play and adult-child interaction in the remote community of Ernabella, the oldest settlement in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, northern South Australia. The circumstance of Aboriginal children in remote areas is introduced as a contrasting picture: on the one hand, the life of Aboriginal families is shaped by their marginalised socio-economic position and dependency on the state, which has become especially evident in the recently intensified efforts by the government to “mainstream” Aboriginal communities deemed in “social chaos” in order to regulate and thereby improve children's lives; on the other there is the social fact that children enjoy a comparatively high level of autonomy within the Aboriginal domain. The much-observed “freedom” from parental discipline, however, does not simply mean that children assert their will without regard for certain social rules. Rather, it is suggested that it is precisely the relatively low level of direct instruction and reprimand by adults that fosters children's ability to pattern their behaviour in relation to one another and to structure their social world and understandings according to the meanings that they co-create. Agency of this kind often occurs through imaginative play and spontaneously. This paper does not address policy issues directly. However, it is relevant as a background paper on Aboriginal children's lives that contributes to the understanding and recognition of existing social capacities outside institutional settings.     

论《长生殿》、《桃花扇》在古代历史剧创作中的典范意义

《长生殿》与《桃花扇》在处理历史素材时所遵循的主导原则是不同的,前者是史为戏用,以剧统史;而后者是以史统戏,以剧述史。不过虽然两剧作者对待史实的态度即曲史观有异,但是他们都追求历史真实感和艺术真实感的交融统一。作为历史剧,《长生殿》与《桃花扇》的创作模式明显好于有违史实的翻案戏,这两部剧作代表了我国古代历史剧创作的两种主导范式。     

文化悖论时空与后现代主义——电影《大话西游》的时空文化研究

电影《大话西游》是香港电影工业在多元文化语境中进行的一次自我突破。它将后现代主义思潮和中国传统的佛道思想结合,并利用模糊时空美学,体现出独特的思想内涵。该电影存在两个空间化了的时空场域,并用“500年前/后”作为时空结界,用月光宝盒、紫青宝剑、紧箍咒、照妖镜四个道具,改变电影叙事因果关系,在人物不断的转世和时空穿梭中强化历史和现实的自我认同。同时,电影的多重时空,始终指向另一个隐含的、观众的文化时空,即一个具有后现代意味的当代中国人的碎片化的生存语境。     

结合案例分析游戏在儿童社会工作个案辅导中的运用

游戏是儿童表达想法和感受的重要媒介,在儿童的成长生活中占据着非常重要的地位。社会工作实务辅导有必要重视游戏对儿童的意义,将之融合进实务辅导之中。但目前我国社会工作专业领域中尚缺乏相关的理论和实践经验。本文结合自身实务经验,提出专业社工可在三个层面借鉴西方儿童游戏治疗理论的经验,指导个案辅导中的游戏运用,以期可以促进儿童个案社会工作实务的新发展。     

论袁世硕先生的历史剧创作观--兼及对当代历史剧创作的启示意义

袁世硕先生对历史剧创作提出了不少真知灼见，主要内容可以概括为三大方面：艺术形象的准确定位、历史真实的现实意义和谋篇布局的精细设计。这些创作观念，不仅揭示了古代历史剧创作的深层规律，具有重要的理论价值，而且对当代的历史剧创作有着重要的启示意义。     

Winnicott,Tomkins, and the Psychology of Affect

Donald Winnicott’s work is rather well-known to most clinicians, and many of his concepts––e.g., facilitating environment, spontaneous gesture, going-on-being, impingement, annihilation, True and False Self––are utilized clinically and theoretically. Silvan Tomkins and his colleagues provide a profound understanding of the psychology of affect, and their work furnishes a lens through which Winnicott’s ideas can be further appreciated. The author suggests such an integration is crucial not only to deepening our understanding of Winnicott’s concepts, but also to enhancing the clinical dimension of affect theory. This discussion also has important implications for social work with respect to both treatment issues as well as prevention and early intervention programs.

“Funny Face”: Shareware for Child Counseling and Play Therapy

SUMMARY

“Funny Face,” an off-the-shelf children's computer game, is used in play therapy and counseling with preschool and latency age children by the author/designer, who also serves as the therapist.     

LOVING HISTORY'S FATE,PERVERTING THE BEAUTIFUL SOUL: SCENES OF FELICITY'S POTENTIAL

This essay is addressed to several facets of the relationship between human eroticism and law. Tracing Luce Irigaray's notion of love (to) through the sense of recognition that appears in Hegel's discussion of confession, it argues that the middle voice of love expresses and performs an interest in both intersubjective understanding and open-ended play. Against the law, the felicity of love (to) marks the potential to make history and constitute desire with an Other. It may appear when human identity is set into relation with the productive negativity of its perversion.