Collection: Critical Studies in Games and Culture

Series editors: Bettina Bódi, University of Birmingham and Poppy Wilde, Birmingham City University

Critical Studies in Games and Culture is dedicated to exploring the political, cultural, and social significance of games and play. Recognising that games do not exist in isolation, the series foregrounds interdisciplinary perspectives from cultural studies, media studies, sociology, anthropology, political science, environmental humanities, design studies, critical theory, philosophy, and science and technology studies. It seeks scholarship that addresses games as cultural artefacts embedded within broader structures of power, and as arenas through which individuals and communities imagine alternative possibilities. By focusing on the politics of play and the cultural stakes of game worlds, Critical Studies in Games and Culture offers a distinctive, critically engaged intervention in the global field of game studies. Books in the series examine how games shape, and are shaped by, the complex social, political, and cultural dynamics of contemporary life.

The series welcomes works that engage with:

• the politics of representation, identity, and embodiment in games
• global and transnational gaming cultures
• labour, production, and the political economy of the games industry
• platform governance, datafication, and algorithmic power
• activist and community practices, including modding, protest play, and participatory politics
• decolonial, queer, feminist, critical race, disability, and intersectional theory and studies
• ethics, responsibility, and the social and environmental impact of game design
• games and environmental humanities
• the cultural and political significance of non‑digital forms of play, including, but not restricted to, board games, tabletop role-playing games, live-action role-playing games, escape rooms, and other forms of social play

The series invites both scholarly monographs and edited collections.

To submit a book proposal and discuss your project, please contact the Series Editors:

Bettina Bódi (b.bodi@bham.ac.uk)

Poppy Wilde (poppy.wilde@bcu.ac.uk)

Or Senior Commissioning Editor Becky Taylor (b.taylor@exeterpress.co.uk)