‘Working the play: how a card game negotiates perceptions of work and productivity’

Pisac, Andrea. 2013. ‘Working the play: how a card game negotiates perceptions of work and productivity’. Narodna umjetnost: Croatian Journal of Ethnology and Folklore Research, 50(1), pp. 182-201. ISSN 0547-2504 [Article]

No full text available

Abstract or Description

based 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.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.15176/vol50no108

Keywords:

play; work; productivity; contingency; playfulness as disposition

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Anthropology

Dates:

DateEvent
July 2013Published

Item ID:

11835

Date Deposited:

23 Jun 2015 13:38

Last Modified:

23 Jun 2015 13:38

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/11835

Edit Record Edit Record (login required)