Abstract submission for the Conference is now closed

 

Conference aim and questions:

 

This is the 6th international Philosophy at Play conference. For some time, we have been discussing questions of power and marginalization and of a relative absence in the conferences regarding the philosophical perspectives of the disempowered. This Conference therefore aims to offer a space for dialogue around and across relations of oppression, marginalization and erasure that we hope can get us beyond the dangers of appropriation and exploitation.

The project to date has been marked by a predominance of Euro-American outlooks. We hope this conference can be the beginning of a process to change this. Although there has been some engagement with majority world philosophical perspectives and with critiques of exclusionary practices, notions both of play and of its philosophical understanding remain contained within minority world approaches. We are alert to the risks of appropriation and extraction and therefore to the need for philosophical and scholarly humility in these discussions. In recognition of this, we also hope to create a safe space for open and constructive dialogue that can help bring about change. As a result, we are open to various formats and ways to engage in these discussions. In that spirit, the proposed questions and session formats below are suggestive, not restrictive.

We invite contributions related (but not limited) to the following questions:

• To what extent and in what ways have hierarchies of dominance shaped hegemonic philosophies of play and playfulness?

• To what extent and in what ways has the power of legitimation claimed by and granted to hegemonic institutions and scholarship influenced the adoption/adaptation/rejection of dominant philosophies of play and playfulness by the oppressed/erased/marginalized?
• Have there historically been resistance and counterculture movements that have rejected and denounced this bias?

• Has research in recent decades moved towards the decolonization of play?

• Has there been any space or literature from which the marginalized and excluded have offered alternative notions of play?

• What characterizes the colonizer and the oppressed in a playful situation? Is it possible to be oppressor and oppressed at the same time in the play?

• In the case of assuming the thesis on the need to decolonize play studies, what does it mean and what implications does it have? There is a tension over who has the legitimacy and validity to decolonize play. Is it possible to contribute to the decolonization of play studies in philosophical perspective from our deconstructed position of privileged and dominant? And, if so, in what way or to what extent can we support and contribute to decolonizing theses on play?

 

Submissions:

 

The conference will accommodate presentations of different formats and lengths, including standard conference papers (20 min), performance lectures (20 min), “no paper” talks (20 min), workshops, interviews, public dialogues, discussions and games (20-90 minute slots).

Researchers are invited to submit a 150-word abstract, including a brief biography (100 words), an indication of a chosen presentation format and a note of any technical requirements. The conference languages will be English and Spanish. Proposals may be submitted in any of these languages.

All submissions must be received at philplay@ucm.es by October 30, 2023. Please, ensure that you include your surname as the first word in the file name of the document you send. Please, do not send any additional documents beyond the material requested above. Proposals will be answered by January 31, 2024.
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