Ludic Geographies. Call for papers for RGS-IBG 2012, Edinburgh

Together with Fraser MacDonald (University of Edinburgh), I’ve put together a session on Ludic Geographies for the forthcoming annual RGS-IBG conference to be held in Edinburgh this July. The call for papers is below and link to the conference website are below. Please contact me if you’re interested…

This session invites geographers (and others) to consider the ludic as more than child’s play. It is a fundamental part of human experience across the lifecourse. Though often undervalued, it is broader and more complex than common associations allow. Geographers, among others, have recently turned to play in their studies of the workplace, urban practice, consumption, public protest and geopolitics. It is present too in recent moves towards affirmative modes of critique, more-than-rational ways of working, and experimentation with creative styles of writing. Throughout this work there is a growing appreciation that the ludic is a significant geographical concern in and of itself.

Ludic Geographies draws together research that examines the relation of play to the everyday and to rationality. It aims to open up the ethical potential of play for academic analysis, creative experiment and political practice. The session notably resists a metaphysical positioning of play as in opposition to seriousness, morality and productive work, and their attendant social relations. Rather, in encouraging the geographical aspects of play alongside the playful aspects of geography, we would welcome papers that approach the ludic from diverse disciplinary, theoretical and methodological positions.

Themes may include, but are not limited to:
•       Playful approaches to well being
•       Playful approaches to environmental thinking and action
•       States of play: geopolitics, securitization, war gaming
•       Digital and networked play
•       The place of the ludic in anticipatory and utopian thought
•       The relation of the senses and/or vitality to play
•       Psychoanalysis and play
•       Toys and transitional objects
•       The role of the ludic in cultivating modes of ethical generosity and/or responsiveness
•       Experimentation with rules, roles and meaning
•       The philosophical kinship of play and critique
•       Play as a form of political praxis
•       Playful research practices
•       Engagements with the irrational/more-than-rational

Papers on other related topics are also welcome.

More details about the conference can be found at:

http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm