A agência dos jogos: dissenso e emancipação na produção política do espaço

Abstract

This work proposes a critical reflection on the production and use of games as tools for the 'political' production of space. Politics, in the context of this research, is understood while opposing the heteronomous dimension of spatial practice, present both in the normative regulation of space and in the configuration of economic and social forces that condition its production. The research turns its interest to an understanding of games in the field of experience, in contrast to a conventional approach that defines games as an 'activity'. The dimension of the experience, while broadening the durability of the field of action, inscribes the games in a system of dispositions for past and future actions. In this field, games can broaden the spatial imaginary of players acting both in the constituent process of political subjectivities and transforming the relation between players and their spatial practice. The research defines its object in the 'agency' of games, based on the concept of agency formulated in the Actor-network Theory (ANT), to qualify the games as a means for the emancipation of those who act in the everyday production of space. Emancipation is taken as a horizon for the practice of games in two instances: One that looks at the constituent process enabled by the experience involved in the act of playing, and another that places the production of games as a critical alternative to the conventional practice of architects and urban planners, regarding the prescriptive dimension of architectural design and the reduction of planning to its normative aspects. The different forms of agency identified in the games, both in the theoretical field and in the empirical research, were assembled in a Gaming Agency Manifesto. The manifesto can be understood as an invitation and a provocation for those wishing delve deeper into the subject of games as a tool for political production of space.