Working the Play: how a card game negotiates perceptions of work and productivity Cover Image

Rad na igri: kako kartaška igra oblikuje ideje o radu i produktivnosti
Working the Play: how a card game negotiates perceptions of work and productivity

Author(s): Andrea Pisac
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore
Published by: Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku
Keywords: play; work; productivity; contingency; playfulness as disposition

Summary/Abstract: 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.

  • Issue Year: 50/2013
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 182-201
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: English