Gamification of Work

Emmanuelle Savignac is an anthropologist and senior lecturer at the University La Sorbonne, and at the CERLIS (CNRS, Paris 3, Paris 5).

• Introduction ixChapter 1 Prelude: Fun, Play, Game, Ludus A Survey of Game Theories 11.1 Animal play, human play 21.2 Theories of human play 61.2.1 Precursors 61.2.2 Differentiation between game structure and ludic attitude 141.3 Play as potential and intermediate space 161.3.1 Winnicott and play as “potential space” 161.3.2 Bateson and the question of “frame” 191.3.3 Goffman’s analysis of frame 211.4 The concept of play today 271.4.1 The current syntheses of a definition of play 271.4.2 Brougère’s characteristics of play 281.4.3 The link with learning 33Chapter 2 Games in Business 352.1 Relations between games and work: an apparent incongruity 352.1.1 A variety of ways to address the relations between games and work in the social and human sciences 392.2 The game in business: returning to a typology 432.2.1 Challenges 452.2.2 Simulation games 492.2.3 “Real-life scenarios” or “role-playing games” during training 502.2.4 “Reversal days” or “Try my job” 532.2.5 Business theater 552.2.6 Serious games 562.2.7 Traditional games (board games, cards, Kapla and Lego blocks, murder party, etc.) introduced in work contexts 622.3 On the field of games in business: simulation and role-playing games 652.3.1 The games analyzed 662.4 …Is it a game? 88Chapter 3 Performativity of the Game: Games and the Structuring of Experience 973.1 From the reality of work to the fictionality of games 973.1.1 The ambiguity of games: from the “not for real” to the untruth 1003.1.2 From double assertion to mediation 1033.1.3 The liminality of the game 1053.1.4 “Belief forged within immersion” 1063.2 A role to play 1093.2.1 Role understood as status 1103.2.2 Deframing/reframing: role as technique 1123.3 Asymmetrical reversals: what happens to social relations in the game? 1183.3.1 Terms of reversal 1193.3.2 Limits of reversal 1203.3.3 Taking another’s place up to what point? 1223.3.4 Changing place, changing view? 1243.3.5 Carnival and order 1263.4 The game as an operating structure and the performativity of the game 1293.4.1 An experience without consequences? 1333.4.2 Training for reflexivity, flexibility and exploration 1353.4.3 Performance linked to self-realization 1373.4.4 The power to speak granted by the fictional frame 1403.4.5 Promoting learning 1423.4.6 The naturalization of rules and norms 145Conclusion 151Bibliography 155Index 171