Digital Culture & Society (DCS): Vol. 7, Issue 1/2021 - Laborious Play and Playful Work II

This double issue of Digital Culture & Society addresses the dialectics of play and labour, taking a closer look at the problem of play and work from two overlapping, albeit not mutually exclusive, perspectives. After the first issue explored the notion of laborious play, this second one studies the concept of playful work.
The contributions feature critical inquiries into various phenomena of playful work – ranging from interfaces of play and work in the BDSM subculture over labour in digital gaming to high frequency trading. Alongside the articles, the issue features an interview with Fred Turner, Chair of the Department of Communication at Stanford University. He talks about the Bauhaus in the US, countercultural cybernetics, technology and consciousness, and work in the Silicon Valley.

Pablo Abend (PhD) is the scientific coordinator of the Research School »Locating Media« at the University of Siegen. He is interested in geomedia, situated methodologies, participatory culture, and Science and Technology Studies.

Mathias Fuchs (Dr.) is an artist, musician and media scholar. He is the director of the Gamification Lab at Leuphana University in Lüneburg. He is a pioneer in the field of game art and is a leading scholar in game studies and directs a project on Gamification that is funded by the German Research Council (2018-2021).

Karin Wenz (Dr.) is an assistant professor of Media Culture at Maastricht University, Netherlands, and director of studies of the MA Media Culture.