We invite proposals for a special issue of Mind, Culture, and Activity that explores play in all its depth and breadth—as a developmental activity, a site of resistance, a cultural and political force, and a collective, transformative practice. Across diverse global contexts, play is being reimagined and repurposed to challenge systemic injustice, to create community, and to reconfigure the boundaries between learning, activism, art, and everyday life.
This issue seeks to bring together scholars, practitioners, and playmakers who are engaging in critical and creative work on play—from early childhood classrooms to activist performance, from digital game design to grassroots organizing, from participatory design to playworlds. We aim to include both theoretical and empirical work, and we especially welcome submissions that challenge dominant paradigms or speak from historically marginalized or underrepresented perspectives.
Topics may include (but are not limited to):
- Intergenerational and intersectional approaches to play
- Play and justice: decolonial, feminist, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist interventions
- Adult play, play activism, and collective performance
- Play and the politics of learning and development
- Play and creativity in the Global South
- Digital play, games, and technological mediation
- Play and radical inclusion across ability, language, and identity
- Critical reflections on the psychology of play and its institutional forms
Submission Details: Please submit a 300-500 word abstract to Mind, Culture, and Activity (“submit an article” at https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/hmca20) by September 15, 2025. Acceptance letters will be sent by October 31. Full papers for accepted abstracts will be due March 2, 2026. We anticipate publication of the special issue in September 2026.
Your abstract should discuss your theoretical frameworks, methods, and data (if applicable), and also respond to any or all of the following guiding questions:
- How are you positioning yourself in relation to your work—and, if relevant, to current events?
- If your paper is co-authored (single-author submissions are also welcome), how are you thinking about the composition of your collective of authors?
- If your paper is an empirical study, what is your relationship to your participants?
- How do you see your paper as engaging with or contributing to understandings of play?
- Are you planning to include, alongside your traditional article, a nontraditional piece (e.g., a poem, photographs, artwork, or other creative contribution)?
We welcome a range of submission formats, including traditional academic articles, co-authored or collaborative pieces, and papers that incorporate or are accompanied by creative, multimedia, or practice-based materials. All accepted authors will be invited to participate in post-publication dialogue and exchange on Cultural Praxis, where we will create an interactive space for author-to-author and author-to-participant response, experimentation, and ongoing collective play.
Let’s imagine new possibilities together—across disciplines, borders, and generations—for what play can do and become.
Special Issue Editors: Beth Ferholt, Fernanda Liberali, Carrie Lobman
Mind, Culture, and Activity
www.culturalpraxis.net