Game theory, rational choice, and decision-making models aside, how might we recognise politics as play? This honours course, which ran from April to June 2013 in Leiden's campus in The Hague, invited 16 honours students of Leiden University, along with guest speakers and workshop leaders from the realms of policy-making and strategic-consulting to digital-gaming to transmedia-filming, to experiment with various frameworks for understanding politics as a collective aesthetic experience, where the central theme of “play” conjured a staged script, a virtuosic and strategic move in a sports arena, a pun straddling innocence and deception, and a concoction of spontaneity and alterity that exemplifies political opposition, competition, agonism, and even those rare moments of agreement.
This course challenged us to conceive the political as an active space where boundaries and relationships can be drawn and redrawn, and where dissonance and difference can produce an environment conducive to autonomy, authenticity, and receptivity. Looking beyond conventional categories of political studies, students were encouraged to think outside of the box and to play with “play”.
Each session of the course was dedicated to a particular theme, as tabbed above. Each tab contains a quick introduction of the discussion, readings, and activities covered in our weekly exploration, as well as a selection of student reflections on the interplay between politics and each designated theme.
Happy browsing--feel free to share any questions or comments here, and take a look at our post-course blog here!
Dr. Cissie Fu
Course Convenor
This course challenged us to conceive the political as an active space where boundaries and relationships can be drawn and redrawn, and where dissonance and difference can produce an environment conducive to autonomy, authenticity, and receptivity. Looking beyond conventional categories of political studies, students were encouraged to think outside of the box and to play with “play”.
Each session of the course was dedicated to a particular theme, as tabbed above. Each tab contains a quick introduction of the discussion, readings, and activities covered in our weekly exploration, as well as a selection of student reflections on the interplay between politics and each designated theme.
Happy browsing--feel free to share any questions or comments here, and take a look at our post-course blog here!
Dr. Cissie Fu
Course Convenor