Contemporary Homo Ludens

Play allows the fulfilment of one’s dreams, yet also teaches subjugation to the norms governing daily life. Furthermore, traditional forms of play, transmitted from one generation to another, guarantee a culture’s continuance and perpetuation in time. Contemporary forms of play integrate a populace, creating a specific community of laughter which places a high value on individuality and the ability to lead social games. Play invalidates social divisions, but also diversifies behaviours through the introduction of changes in the rules, depending on the age of those engaged. Furthermore, it adapts to the forms by which social reality is created, as well as that reality’s goals, which, in turn, impart sense and meaning to something which, of its own nature, seems deprived thereof.

Halina Mielicka-Pawłowska is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology in the Faculty of Pedagogy and Arts at Jan Kochanowski University, Poland, and holds a major in Ethnography, as well as a PhD in Sociology with a specialisation in the sociology of religion. She is also chief editor of the Plays and Toys: Studies in Anthropology magazine.

“This volume is devoted to a large part of the ideas and theories of Johan Huizinga. The 70th anniversary of the death of this famous researcher and humanist has become an opportunity to reread his views on play, in different countries, from the perspective of a changing society and the world, considering identity in cyberspace as to the value of play. This volume is recommended not just to a narrow circle of specialists, but also to a wide array of readers. Play can give each of us the opportunity to relax in the ‘speeding world.’ The texts contained in this book tend to say that the game, which seems to be something trivial or glamorous, may become the subject of serious scientific reflections.”
Professor Zenon Jasiński
University of Opole, Poland

Wioleta Adamczyk-Bębas

Sylwester Bębas

Katarzyna Bloch

Marta Bolińska

Anna Boraczyńska

Adam Bzoch

Ryszard Błaszkiewicz

Sławomir Chrost

Jacek Gawron

Michał Grabowski

Léon Hanssen

Andrzej Jopkiewicz