Meet our ambassadors:

The ambassadors are playful friends of CounterPlay, who help us understand and share their experiences from the festival.

Play Against Instrumentalization

Play Against Instrumentalization

Maybe play can remind us that the otherwise widespread instrumentalization can be resisted? That there is indeed more to life and to democracy than maximizing profits?

The Politics of Play

The Politics of Play

Some might say that this whole thing about “play and democracy” is a misunderstanding, forcing play into a space, where it doesn’t belong: the realm of politics. What if play is already always political by nature?

Recognizing the Other

Recognizing the Other

I recently asked if play can save democracy, marking the first steps on my journey to explore what I already at the outset consider a deep kinship shared by play and democracy. As promised, there is no clear answer in sight, but some patterns and questions are...

Can Play Save Democracy?

Can Play Save Democracy?

Can play save democracy? It’s a big question and one that I’m afraid I can’t answer in the affirmative. Not yet, probably never. So what if even the best we can ever do will always fall short of “saving” democracy, if we can only hope to keep it alive, or, better yet, to make it come alive?

Sæt legen i centrum

Sæt legen i centrum

Fra en pædagogisk temadag i Hillerød, der havde fået titlen “Sæt legen i centrum”. Det var en skøn formiddag med en masse leg, refleksion og samtaler om leg. Sikke dog en herlig flok dygtige, engagerede pædagoger, der i den grad vil legen, og som har mod på at tage livtag med de små og store udfordringer, de møder hver dag.

Tanker fra en ”LegeEdCamp”

Tanker fra en ”LegeEdCamp”

I lørdags havde jeg sammen med gode legekammerater samlet en flok legesyge mennesker på Københavns Professionshøjskole: Campus Carlsberg til den første danske ”LegeEdCamp”. De gode folk hos BUPL havde gavmildt støttet med penge til forplejning, så dagen var gratis for...

The “What/Why” of CounterPlay

The “What/Why” of CounterPlay

Many people ask: “What is “CounterPlay”? Why should I consider participating?” Read more for an attempt at answering those questions.

Demokratiske Legelaboratorier

Demokratiske Legelaboratorier

“Demokratiske dannelsesprocesser foregår ikke let som en leg, for ingen leg er let. Men de begynder i leg” (Toft & Hansen, 2017)Vi oplever i disse år en bekymrende “demokratisk recession”, der rammer de fleste, hvis ikke alle, af verdens demokratier, de unge og...

We Can’t Force Play

We Can’t Force Play

Due to the unpredictable nature of play, we can’t say exactly what will happen when we play, where we end up or “what we get out of it”. We can’t even guarantee that play will happen at all – and that’s ok.

Playing the Archive

Playing the Archive

I was recently in London for a conference in the brilliant and ambitious research project “Playing the Archive”, a project built on the immense legacy of “The Opies”.