3rd Global Conference: Play

3rd Global Conference: Play

Saturday 1st November - Monday 3rd November 2014

Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Presentations:

The interdisciplinary project Making Sense Of: Play seeks to examine the various meanings of "play", elucidate their inter-relationships and trace the origins of the patterns of play and their place in the human condition. Variations in cultural conditions naturally impact on play, its meanings and its forms, as do, often in a different way, economic inequalities both within and between different cultures. Our deliberations will necessarily takes this into account. In many languages, as in English, throughout its etymological history "play" has been closely connected to the world of children and make believe. Academic study of play, too, deals predominantly with various aspects of children's play and its importance in development. There is, in fact, a lack of balance between the study of play in relation to children and childhood on one hand, and "play" more generally, as outlined above, on the other. For this reason our project explicitly ! emphasizes the comparatively under-explored aspects of play in linguistic, literary, philosophical, historical, psychological and evolutionary frames of reference.

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." (Plato)

Possible Themes and Topics:

-Its evolutionary significance: Viewed from biological and paleoanthropoligical standpoint, how has play factored into the evolution of Homo Sapiens?

-In politics: is politics a game? What are the "rules" and how can they be transgressed?

-In literature and the arts: How do the arts function as play in our culture? Are artists game-masters? Are some forms of art especially "playful?" How is "the play the thing" - to quote Shakespeare? What should we make of artistic works in which "dark play" is featured?

-The Embodiment of Play: When is moving playful? In dance? In physical games? How does the enactment of body movements influence physical and emotional behaviour?

-Historical and cultural models of play: Does "play" mean and function differently in different cultures and societies? What can we learn by exploring other cultures' models of play? Has the concept and practice of play evolved differently for adults and children?

-In philosophy: How does play function in the divide between truth and appearance? Do philosophers "play" with ideas? How can we understand play beyond the limits of specific disciplinary boundaries? Why does play continue to be a "slippery concept"?

-As a psychological issue: Do we need to play as a function of mental health and well being? Are there healthy and non-healthy forms of play? Play/Work/Contemplation: does Aristotle's analysis of the good life serve contemporary conditions?

-In language and linguistics: what does it mean to "play with language?" Are metaphors linguistic play? How is 'deconstruction' a form of playing with language?

-As humour: How do jokes and other forms of humor operate as play? When might jokes and humor be "anti-play?"

-Play of perception: How do our senses afford us opportunities to play? Is the artistic look a form of play? Can sounds, tastes, colors invite us to playfully engage in the world?

-Play and the life-course: How does play figure into existential crisis (illness, death), love, hatred, and power? Does play serve as special form of communication? Can play be a form of addiction or can it be used to address addictive behaviour? What forms does play take in adult lives and in the lives of the elderly?

-Animal play: What does play mean in the animal world? Do animals play? Need to play? Can we play with animals in the sense that we are engaging in their own forms of play? Animal play has been an important tool in understanding how humans play. Given this, how are human and animal play different and similar?

-Play and children: What role do toys serve in a child's life? How does play function in the classroom? How do children play? What role does contact with the natural world play in child's play?

-Play and technology: How has technology changed and expanded/or limited how we play in our respective cultures?

-Dark and dangerous play: Where does play veer from "playful" to dangerous and destructive? How does the example of "war as play" provide a paradigm of exploring the complicated nature of play? How can we understand "dark play" within the classic paradigm in which play is seen as predominantly "fun"?

In order to support and encourage inter-disciplinarity engagement, it is our intention to create the possibility of starting dialogues between the parallel events running during this conference. Delegates are welcome to attend up to two sessions in each of the concurrent conferences. We also propose to produce cross-over sessions between these groups ââ��" and we welcome proposals which deal with the relationship between Making Sense of: Dying and Death, Strangers, Aliens and Foreigners and Making Sense of: Play.

What to Send:

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 27th June 2014. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 19th September 2014. Abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats, following this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: Play 3 Abstract Submission

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Joint Organising Chairs:

Wendy Turgeon: turgeon@optonline.net

Rob Fisher: play3@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.

Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation.

For further details of the conference, please visit:

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/making-sense-of/play/call-for-papers/