A critical challenge for addressing urgent broad societal issues is to navigate multiple worldviews and perspectives, both within academic research contexts and at the interface of science and society. Spaces that cultivate playfulness can open up participants to express, share, question, and transform how they experience and act in the world.

Our interdisciplinary team of ten researchers has been co-designing card decks and other playful materials and activities that can support transdisciplinary collaborations. Our goal is to consolidate these learnings into a “travelling library for transformative play” to circulate widely and enable collaborations to address important societal challenges.

Our collaboration has been funded by the Centre for Unusual Collaborations via their Spark and UCo grant schemes, from 2021–24.

What is this project about?

Academic team members for 2024:
Jet Vervoort (WUR), Dan Lockton (TU/e), Raimon Ripoll-Bosch (WUR), Jessica Duncan (WUR), Maikel Waardenburg (UU), Josie Chambers (UU), Joost Vervoort (UU), Joyce Browne (UMCU). Thank you to Suzan Ruijtenberg (UU), Alay Llamas (UMCU), and George Downward (UMCU) for their contributions to earlier years of the project.

Designers and researchers:
Saskia Colombant, Sable Knight, Danvy Vu, Lotte de Lint.

Contact: Raimon Ripoll-Bosch (raimon.ripollbosch@wur.nl)