PTK (Pi Pi) Honors in Action (Play)

Transnational Play makes a case for approaching gameplay as a global industry and set of practices that also includes diverse participation from players and developers located within the global South, in nations outside of the First World. Such participation includes gameplay in cafes, games for regional and global causes like environmentalism, piracy and cheats, localization, urban playful art in Latin America, and the development of culturally unique mobile games. This book offers a reorientation of perspective on global play, while still acknowledging geographically distributed socioeconomic, racial, gender, and other inequities. Over the course of the inquiry, which includes a chapter dedicated to the cartography of the mobile augmented reality game Pokémon Go, the author develops a theoretical line of argument critically informed by gender studies and intersectionality, post-colonialism, geopolitics, and game studies. This book looks at who develops, localizes, and consumes games, problematizing play as a diverse and contested transnational domain.

In his groundbreaking Imagined Communities, first published in 1983, Benedict Anderson argued that members of a community experience a "deep, horizontal camaraderie." Despite being strangers, members feel connected in a web of imagined experiences. Yet while Anderson's insights have been hugely influential, they remain abstract: it is difficult to imagine imagined communities. How do they evolve and how is membership constructed cognitively, socially and culturally? How do individuals and communities contribute to group formation through the act of imagining? And what is the glue that holds communities together? Imagining Communities examines actual processes of experiencing the imagined community, exploring its emotive force in a number of case studies. Communal bonding is analysed, offering concrete insights on where and by whom the nation (or social group) is imagined and the role of individuals therein. Offering eleven empirical case studies, ranging from the premodern to the modern age, this volume looks at and beyond the nation and includes regional as well as transnational communities as well.

City of Play shows how play is built into the very fabric of the modern city. From playgrounds to theme parks, skittle alleys to swimming pools, to the countless uncontrolled spaces which the urban habitat affords - play is by no means just a childhood affair. A myriad essentially unproductive playful pursuits have, through time, modelled the modern city and landscape. Architect and scholar Rodrigo Pérez de Arce's erudite, original, and often surprising study explores a curiously neglected dimension of architectural design and practice: ludic space. It is an architectural history of the playground - from the hippodrome to the Situationist city - of space released from productive ends in the pursuit of leisure. But this is more than just a book about how architecture has incorporated play into its spaces and structures, it is a history of the modern city itself. The ludic imagination impregnated modernist ideals, and what begins with the playground ends with a re-consideration of the whole sweep of the modern movement through the filter of leisure and play.Because play is such a basic or fundamental human experience, the book re-grounds the architect's concerns with those of non-architects - and not only those of adults but also of children. It seeks to give everyone - architects and other ordinary city-dwellers alike - a better understanding about what is at stake in the making of the public spaces of our cities.

Increasing numbers of children and adolescents internationally are being diagnosed with secondary health problems (e.g., overweight-obesity, diabetes, asthma, anxiety, etc.) due in part, or at least related to, a lack of physical activity. Children and adolescents with various forms of special needs (for example, children and adolescents with physical or intellectual disabilities, children and adolescents from disadvantaged social backgrounds and children and adolescents with chronic illnesses) seem to be particularly at risk for secondary health problems, which in the end limit their social participation and inclusion, as well as their ability to achieve their full potential and to lead happy and fulfilling lives. For these children and adolescents, involvement in regular physical activities (including fitness activities and sports) may have far reaching benefits. For instance, organized physical activities are known to represent an effective vehicle for interventions for children and adolescents with special needs who do not seem to benefit as much as others from more traditional, verbal-oriented approaches. Organized physical activities (in or out of school) further provide these children and adolescents with opportunities to interact in a positive manner with prosocial peers and adults who may serve as positive role models for them. There is currently a paucity of research about physical activities that effectively include children and adolescents with a range of special needs or research that identifies evidence-based strategies that seed success in maximizing the involvement in, and the positive biopsychosocial outcomes associated with, the practice of physical activity. This dearth of research is impeding progress in addressing the biopsychosocial disadvantage that these children and adolescents encounter, the development of new solutions for enabling full potential, and ensuring that children and adolescents with special needs not only succeed, but also flourish in life. This volume includes examples of theory, research, policy, and practice that will advance our understanding of how best to encourage these children and adolescents to participate regularly in physical activity, how to maximize the biopsychosocial benefits of involvement in physical activities, and how to ensure that these physical activities are inclusive for children and adolescents with special needs. The focus will be placed on research-derived physical activity practices that seed success for children and adolescents with special needs, and new directions in theory, research, and practice that have implications for enhancing physical activity practices with at-risk children and adolescents. The themes covered in this volume include:  Strategies to maximise participation of children and adolescents with special needs in physical activity as a global priority;  Strategies to maximise the social inclusion of children and adolescents with special needs in general physical activities;  Effective physical education strategies to enhance biopsychosocial outcomes for children and adolescents with special needs;  Advancing the practice of educators and coaches to cultivate the social inclusion and participation in physical activity of children and adolescents with special needs; and  Challenging the meaning and implementation of inclusive practices in physical education globally.