Main content

Adulthood and the importance of play

What role does play have in our adult lives and how can it increase productivity at work?

As an adult you have responsibilities, and life settles into routine. Researchers have found that even in the most boring jobs, workers find ways to introduce elements of play to make the time pass, while people with more creative occupations use play to free their imaginations and release creativity. The Situationist art movement of 1950s Paris thought that play was a political act, and that the city could be used as a playground to rebel against the restrictions of capitalism. Their legacy lives on in the immersive 鈥渟treet games鈥, such as snakes and ladders played in multi storey car parks and city-wide zombie hunts. But this natural tendency to play is also being co-opted by employers, some of whom want to 鈥済amify鈥 boring jobs, to make workers more productive by turning the tasks into a game, or who encourage their employers to play at work to make them more creative. Can workers really be asked to play on demand, and what happens when they play in ways that the employers never expected or wanted?

Presenter: Steffan Powell
Producer: Jolyon Jenkins

(Photo: Performers of The Free Association. Credit: Lidia Crisafulli)

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Sun 5 Feb 2023 11:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Wed 26 Jan 2022 02:32GMT
  • Wed 26 Jan 2022 09:06GMT
  • Wed 26 Jan 2022 13:32GMT
  • Wed 26 Jan 2022 20:06GMT
  • Wed 26 Jan 2022 21:06GMT
  • Sun 30 Jan 2022 11:32GMT
  • Wed 1 Feb 2023 02:32GMT
  • Wed 1 Feb 2023 09:32GMT
  • Wed 1 Feb 2023 20:06GMT
  • Wed 1 Feb 2023 21:06GMT
  • Sun 5 Feb 2023 11:32GMT

The Documentary Podcast

The Documentary Podcast

Hear more documentaries from the 大象传媒 World Service

Podcast