Call for Papers: Mediapolis Special Issue on “Playable Cities”

In parallel to this year’s ASCA Cities Seminar, Carolyn Birdsall, Linda Kopitz and Alex Gekker are co-editing a special issue on “Playable Cities” for Mediapolis – A Journal of Cities and Culture. Taking the recurring metaphor of ‘cities as playgrounds’ as a starting point, this special issue – to be published in September 2025 – aims to explore what playability means in the context of the urban environment. We invite contributions from diverse fields, including, but not limited to, urban studies, film/television studies, game and gaming studies, sociology, geography, gender studies, political studies, philosophy, new media theory, disconnection studies, history, and so on. We are especially interested in contributions exploring ‘Playable Cities’ from a global and interdisciplinary perspective including artistic research and architectural practice. Abstracts (300 words) are due 15 October 2024, the full call for papers can be found here.