Play

Conceptual Overview

Not very surprisingly, play is rather difficult to theorize. The seminal text that best conceptualizes the different notions of play is Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture by the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga. Published in 1938, the book explores play as an integral element of cultural development. As Huizinga argues, play is older than the culture itself and forms the fundament of almost all aspects of human life, including war, poetry, and philosophy. As Huizinga puts it, play pervades life, and that civilization is, in its earliest phases, played.

From a conceptual perspective, play is full of juxtapositions and ambiguities. In his book The Ambiguity of Play, Brian Sutton-Smith explored the different, sometimes paradoxical, meanings that play can take on in social interaction. Just as play can be seen as an enjoyable, relaxing, and fun leisure activity, it can also be seen as something more competitive in which participants need to excel. Similarly, playing a game can be a way to escape reality and be in a world unlike society, where rules are suspended and freedom allows one to behave differently; however, the world of play is filled with rules, rule-books, and referees to enforce them. People play to relax, but then concentrate and focus on being serious within the parameters of the game. Finally, play is seen as something positive that people want and crave to do. On the other hand, play has the connotation of not being serious and being a waste of time that could be spent on more important things. These inherent ambiguities in the concept of play have interesting implications for organizations and rationality. Whereas concepts such as creativity and imagination conjure up a world without rules and boundaries (and hence are in stark contrast to the economic or rational principles supposedly guiding organizations), the notion of play is more complex: while it stresses the use of creativity and imagination, it simultaneously refers to rules, competitiveness, training, and focus. Playing with words, one could argue that although play might be opposed to work, it takes much hard work to become a good player. Thus, the concept of play and its inherent ambiguities offer interesting perspectives for organizations and organization theory.

...