In effect, play and games are neither confined to a linear development of role-taking abilities nor events that occur apart from the everyday experiential realities that make up our life courses. Rather, play and games not only become useful activities that contribute to self-awareness and awareness of others, but also serve as foundational activities connected to shared pasts, shared futures, and varieties of shared foci. 

Volume 67 of Studies in Symbolic Interaction, edited by Michael Katovich, invites manuscripts that explore how human interaction is initiated, maintained, and transformed through playful dynamics. By linking classical foundations with contemporary digital and physical playgrounds, this volume aims to map the evolving landscapes of modern sociality. Several interactionists and scholars using an interactionist perspective have already contributed to our understanding of play and gaming as, to name a few foci, a process of socialization, a free formed disruption of mundane labor, a unique locale for shared meanings and storytelling, a link to virtual worlds that impact definitions of the self, and especially, the self in relation to others, and a way to reframe everyday identities and function as a metaphorical mirror for self-reflection.

In light of the aforementioned foci, we invite submissions that build upon the following insights contributing to our understanding of play, games, and sociality. Some potential examples would include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Play and games as cooperatively governed and separate from everyday lived experience

Play as safely disruptive and potentially constructive

Play and games as localized systems of shared storytelling

The professionalization of play

Play and games linked to contemporary technology and various ways of experiencing selves

Play as created by and through identification with subcultural games and experiences

Playful foundations of the self

Play and games as linked to socialization