The Infinite Game: How to Live Well Together

Description

Whether we are competing for a job, building a business or championing a good cause, some days it can feel as if we are trapped in an endless competition for status, wealth, or attention. Maybe if we learn to play the game and follow the rules we’ll come out on top. But is life really a finite game—a game of selection and rules, winners and losers, players and spectators? In The Infinite Game, Niki Harré asks us to imagine our world anew. What if we are all part of a different type of game entirely—where playing matters more than winning, anyone can join at any time, and rules evolve as new players turn up—an infinite game? Harré looks at our society (are people pawns or participants?) and ourselves (what kind of player would you like to be?) to offer an inspiring vision of how we might live well together. Deeply informed by psychological research and a life of social activism, Niki Harré’s provocative book teaches us all how we might live life as an infinite game. Cover Title page Dedication Imprint Contents Introduction Welcome to the Infinite Game Part One Society and the Infinite Game Chapter One Overarching Principles 1. Continuing the play versus winning 2. Infinite and finite values 3. The difference between finite games that are inside or outside the infinite game Chapter Two People 4. Invitation versus selection 5. People versus allies, pawns, spectators or competitors 6. Open-ended versus restricted expression 7. Connection versus guarded emotions 8. Freedom versus obligation Chapter Three Setting 9. A network versus discrete entities 10. Diversity versus sameness 11. Awe versus control Chapter Four Knowledge 12. Seeking information versus claiming knowledge 13. Understanding versus training Chapter Five Time 14. Looking to the future versus replicating the past 15. Changing the rules versus maintaining the rules Part Two The Infinite Player Chapter Six Hold Finite Games Lightly Chapter Seven Seek and Express Authenticity Chapter Eight Strive for Radical Cooperation Chapter Nine Beware the Trickster Chapter Ten Reflect and Learn Postscript Welcome to the Infinite Game Author’s Note Appendix Infinite Game Workshop Outline Notes References Acknowledgments