ABSTRACT
In the chapter we introduce two ways of thinking about the playful city that have implications for urban social relations: playing in and playing with the city. Playing in the city focuses on organized and sanctioned urban efforts designed to invite people to act in playful ways in the spaces of the city. Playing with the city focuses on citizen-led action that plays with the rules of the city, including how spaces are defined and delimited. We then consider what is similar and distinct about these two approaches, drawing on Franck and Stevens’ (2007) concepts of “tightness” and “looseness”. Ultimately, our aim is to spark some playful thinking about where and how play contributes to the communal experience of city life as well as leisure theory and practice.
