Work as play is the concept of a qualitative change in human work activity. An idea does not have a single author, but is present in studies and culture.
Work is usually perceived as an external obligation and play as an internal compulsion. Consequently, turning work into play is seen as the solution to the
alienation of labor
Karl Marx's theory of alienation describes the separation and estrangement of people from their work, their wider world, their human nature, and their selves. Alienation is a consequence of the division of labour in a capitalist society, wher ...
. Nowadays, play is increasingly integrated into human labor activities. This approach is called
gamification
Gamification is the process of enhancing systems, services, organisations and activities through the integration of game design elements and principles in non-game contexts. The goal is to increase user engagement, motivation, competition and ...
as applied to work.
Anarchism
American anarchist Bob Black, in his essay ''
The Abolition of Work
"The Abolition of Work" is an essay written by Bob Black in 1985. It was part of Black's first book, an anthology of essays entitled ''The Abolition of Work and Other Essays'' published by Loompanics Unlimited. It is an exposition of Black's " ...
'' called for the complete abolition of labor. The method of achieving this goal is "turning work into play".
Psychology
According to
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi ( , , ; 29 September 1934 – 20 October 2021) was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of " flow", a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity. He w ...
, a broad understanding of what constitutes a game can include work. In addition, the factors for achieving a
flow state
''Flow State'' is the debut studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Tash Sultana, released on 31 August 2018, through their own record label, Lonely Lands Records (distributed by Sony Music Australia in Australia, and Mom + Pop elsewhere) ...
desirable for labor activity are obvious characteristic of a game situation.
A 2019 study showed that those who view their content creation as work had the highest levels of activity and income. At the same time, those who associated it with play, earned more income than those content creators who regard their content creation equally as play and work.
See also
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Critique of work
Critique of work or critique of labour is the critique of, or wish to abolish, work ''as such'', and to critique what the critics of works deem wage slavery.
Critique of work can be existential, and focus on how labour can be and/or feel meani ...
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Playbor
Playbour (sometimes spelled playbor) is a hybrid form of play and labour, specifically in the digital games industry.
History
The term was coined by Julian Kücklich in 2005 in his article ''Precarious playbour: Modders and the digital games ...
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Post-work society
In futurology, political science, and science fiction, a post-work society is a society in which the nature of work has been radically transformed and traditional employment has largely become obsolete due to technological progress.
Some post- ...
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Serious game
A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to video games used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, he ...
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Serious play
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Work–life interface
References
Criticism of work
Motivation
Gamification
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