The Playful Citizen: Civic Engagement in a Mediatized Culture

This edited volume collects current research by academics and practitioners on playful citizen participation through digital media technologies. With the emergence of digital and mobile technologies our conceptions and hopes of what citizen participation entails have changed profoundly. Interactive, networked and affordable technologies have transformed the relationship between knowledge, creativity and power. Citizens use media technologies in playful ways to engage in creative knowledge production and to alter professional roles and power structures. This book provides an overview of the potentials and limitations of citizen’s engagement in the digital age through a collection of chapters from various academic fields. What connects these contributions is a focus on what we call playful participation. It is through this ludic engagement, we argue, that the contemporary production of knowledge and creative interventions in journalism, research, activism, art, politics, city making, and many other areas, should be understood. The book editors hold positions at Universities in the Netherlands (Utrecht University) and the UK (University of Warwick). They have published widely about digital media technologies, play, and identity.