Roger Caillois

Bio: Roger Caillois is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Dream & Ignorance. The author has an hindex of 14, co-authored 55 publications receiving 3224 citations.

Man and the sacred

Abstract: Throughout the world, people believe that much of what they do is accidental, ordinary, and inconsequential, while other acts can bring on divine retribution or earn eternal grace. In "Man and the Sacred", Caillois demonstrates how humanity's ambiguous attitude toward the sacred influences behaviour and culture. Drawing on a diverse array of ethnographic contexts, including the sexual rituals of the Ba-Thong of South Africa and evidence drawn from aboriginal Australian, Eskimo, and traditional Chinese social systems, Caillois analyzes the role of the forbidden in the social cohesion of the group. He examines the character of the sacred in the light of specific instances of taboos and transgressions, exploring wide differences in attitudes toward diet and sex and extreme behaviours associated with the sacred, such as rapture and paroxysm. He also discusses the festival - an exuberant explosion following a period of strict repression--and compares its functions with those of modern war. A classic study of one of the most fundamental aspects of human social and spiritual life, Man and the Sacred - presented here in Meyer Barash's superb English translation - is a companion volume to Caillois's Man, Play and Games.

The Edge of Surrealism: A Roger Caillois Reader

Abstract: "The Edge of Surrealism" is an essential introduction to the writing of French social theorist Roger Caillois (1913-1978). Though his subjects were diverse, Caillois focused on issues crucial to modern intellectual life, and his essays offer a unique perspective on many of twentieth-century France's most significant intellectual movements and figures. Including a masterful introductory essay by Claudine Frank situating his work in relation to his life and intellectual milieu, this anthology is the first comprehensive introduction to Caillois' work to appear in any language. A part of the Surrealist avant garde, in the 1930s Caillois founded the College of Sociology with Georges Bataille and Michel Leiris. Caillois spent the remainder of his life exploring issues raised by this famous group. During World War II he lived in Buenos Aires and edited the journal Les Lettres Francaises. In the postwar period, he resisted dominant intellectual trends including existentialism and Marxism, and pursued his own interests, writing on a variety of topics, including politics, poetics, sociology, games, the 'fantastic', and, ultimately, designs in nature and on stones. He sought to compete with Bataille's journal Critique through the 'renewed humanism' of his own journal, Diogene, and to challenge structuralist theory through his concept of 'diagonal science'. In 1972, Caillois was inducted into the Academie Francaise. Arranged chronologically, these thirty-two essays with commentaries strike a balance between Caillois' political and theoretical writings and between his better known works, such as the popular essays on the praying mantis, myth, and mimicry and his lesser known pieces. Presenting several new documents and drawing on interviews and unpublished correspondence, this book reveals Caillois' consistent effort to reconcile intellectual rigor and imaginative adventure. Perhaps most importantly, "The Edge of Surrealism" provides an overdue look at how Caillois' intellectual project intersected with the work of Georges Bataille and others including Breton, Bachelard, Benjamin, Lacan, and Levi-Strauss.

From game design elements to gamefulness: defining "gamification"

Abstract: Recent years have seen a rapid proliferation of mass-market consumer software that takes inspiration from video games. Usually summarized as "gamification", this trend connects to a sizeable body of existing concepts and research in human-computer interaction and game studies, such as serious games, pervasive games, alternate reality games, or playful design. However, it is not clear how "gamification" relates to these, whether it denotes a novel phenomenon, and how to define it. Thus, in this paper we investigate "gamification" and the historical origins of the term in relation to precursors and similar concepts. It is suggested that "gamified" applications provide insight into novel, gameful phenomena complementary to playful phenomena. Based on our research, we propose a definition of "gamification" as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts.

Games, Motivation, and Learning: A Research and Practice Model:

Abstract: Although most agree that games can be engaging and that games can be instructive, there is little consensus regarding the essential characteristics of instructional games. Implicit in the research literature is the notion that if we pair instructional content with certain game features, we can harness the power of games to engage users and achieve desired instructional goals. In this article, the authors present an input-process- output model of instructional games and learning that elaborates (a) the key features of games that are of interest from an instructional perspective; (b) the game cycle of user judgments, behavior, and feedback that is a hallmark of engagement in game play; and (c) the types of learning outcomes that can be achieved. The authors discuss the implications of this approach for the design and implementation of effective instruc- tional games.

Defining gamification: a service marketing perspective

Abstract: During recent years "gamification" has gained significant attention among practitioners and game scholars. However, the current understanding of gamification has been solely based on the act of adding systemic game elements into services. In this paper, we propose a new definition for gamification, which emphases the experiential nature of games and gamification, instead of the systemic understanding. Furthermore, we tie this definition to theory from service marketing because majority of gamification implementations aim towards goals of marketing, which brings to the discussion the notion of how customer / user is always ultimately the creator of value. Since now, the main venue for academic discussion on gamification has mainly been the HCI community. We find it relevant both for industry practitioners as well as for academics to study how gamification can fit in the body of knowledge of existing service literature because the goals and the means of gamification and marketing have a significant overlap.

Edgework: A Social Psychological Analysis of Voluntary Risk Taking

Abstract: While there seems to be general agreement among members of contemporary American society about the value of reducing threats to individual well-being, there are may who actively seek experiences that involve a high potential for personal injury or death. High-risk sports such as hang gliding, skydiving, scuba diving, rock climbing, and the like have enjoyed unprecedented growth in the past several decades even as political institutions in Western societies have sought to reduce the risks of injury in the workplace and elsewhere. The contradiction between the public agenda to reduce the risk of injury and death and the private agenda to increase such risks deserves th attention of sociologists. A literature review is presented that points to a number of shortcomings in existing studies, most of which are associated with the psychological reductionism that predominates in this area of study. An effort is made to provide a sociological account of voluntary risk taking by (1) introducing a new classifying concept- edgework-based on numerous themes emerging from primary and secondary data on risk taking and (2) explaining edgework in terms of the newly emerging social psychological perspective produced from the synthesis of the Marxian and Meadian frameworks. The concept of edgework highlights the most sociologically relevant features of voluntary risk taking, while the connections between various aspects of risk-taking behaviour and structural characteristic of modern American society at both the micro and macro levels. This approach ties together such factors as political economic variables, at one end of the continuum, and individual sensations and feelings, at the other end.

Television and everyday life

Abstract: 1. Television, Ontology and the Transitional Object 2. Television and a Place Called Home 3. The Suburbanization of the Public Sphere 4. The Tele-Technological System 5. Television and Consumption 6. On the Audience 7. Television, Technology and Everyday Life References