Douglas Rushkoff, author of Coercion and Children of Chaos, and Professor of Virtual Culture at New York University
Pat Kane should convince even skeptical work addicts of the interdependence of play, purpose, and profit.
Christopher Harvie, author of No Gods and Precious Few Heroes, and Professor of British Studies at the University of Tubingen.
The Play Ethic ought to be the most influential book by a Scot since R.D.Laing's The Divided Self.
Daniel H. Pink, author of Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind (forthcoming), ex-speechwriter to Al Gore
Pat Kane has rescued play from the margins of our life and hauled it to the center, where it belongs.
James Harkin, Independent
'Fizzes with intellectual curiosity. Kane writes engagingly and with a humility difficult fo find among idea-entrepreneurs.'
Iain Finlayson, The Times
'A brave attempt to inject a little playfulness... into the dull grind of the working stiff.'
Product Description
A zeitgeist defining book that will challenge all that you know about work, rest and play.
Book Description
We all think we know what play is. Play is what we do as children, what we do outside of work, what we do for no other reason than for pleasure. But this is only half of the truth. The Play Ethic explores the real meaning of play and shows how a more playful society would revolutionize and liberate our daily lives. Using wide and varied sources – from the Enlightenment to Eminem, Socrates to Chaos theory, Kierkegaard to Karaoke – The Play Ethic shows how play is fundamental to both society and to the individual, and how the work ethic that has dominated the last three centuries is ill-equipped to deal with the modern world. With verve, wit and intelligence, Pat Kane takes us on a tour of the playful world arguing that without it business, the arts, politics, education, even our family and spiritual lives are fundamentally impoverished. The Play Ethic seeks to change the way you look at your daily life, how you interact with others, how you view the world. It is a guidebook to new, exciting – and unsettling – times. But even more than this it is a survival guide for those seeking to break the shackles of work dominated society. Shocking, controversial and magnificently argued, The Play Ethic is a book no one who works - or has ever worked - can afford to be without.
About the Author
Pat Kane is a writer, singer, activist and consultant. He was both a founding editor of the Sunday Herald in Glasgow, and one half of the Scottish jazz-pop duo, Hue and Cry. He still sings, but now also runs seminars, talks and a website reaching out to people living the Play Ethic.
