The book: "The Play Ethic: A Manifesto for a Different Way of Living", Pat Kane (Macmillan, 2004)

 

Buy at Amazon (UK, US,), Dymocks (Aus), Chapters (Can)

Praise for Pat Kane's The Play Ethic:

"Pat Kane has written a vital, entertaining, thoughtful and provocative book which should lead us to question why we work and what really provides us with a sense of fulfillment. Who would want to be a worker when you can be a player?"

-- Charles Leadbeater, author of We-Think, Living on Thin Air and Up the Down Escalator, ex-adviser to Tony Blair

"Are you having fun yet? In this most comprehensive look at the power of play since Huizinga or maybe ever, Pat Kane should convince even skeptical work addicts of the interdependence of play, purpose, and profit. This book is as important as it is fun."

-- Douglas Rushkoff, author of Get Back In The Box, Nothing Sacred and Coercion, and Professor of Virtual Culture at New York University.

"The Play Ethic ought to be the most influential book by a Scot since R.D.Laing's The Divided Self - and I hope it will be; it's a long time since I've been jolted into thinking in so many different ways at the same time. Grand H.G. Wellsian argument, logically-constructed but bursting with ideas, pictures and conversations."

-- Christopher Harvie, author of No Gods and Precious Few Heroes, and Professor of British Studies at the University of Tubingen.

“Pat Kane has rescued play from the margins of our life and hauled it to the centre, where it belongs. The Play Ethic’s trenchant and wide-ranging social analysis will engage your brain  - while its spirited call to action will rouse your soul. If you want to be a player, read this book.”

-- Daniel H. Pink,  author of Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind, ex-speechwriter to Al Gore.

“Pat Kane has as firm a grasp on the future of work and society as anyone I know. Ignore his words at your peril!’

-- Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good For You

“The Play Ethic rocks! Get yourself a copy, take off a couple days from work, head to the park or the mountains or the beach and rethink your life. While you’re at it: stop working so hard.”

-- Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, and Heinz Professor of Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon University

From the back cover:

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, yet magnificently argued, The Play Ethic is a book no one who works, or has ever worked, can afford to be without.

Reviews of "The Play Ethic"

Will Hutton, The Guardian: "For Kane the point of life is not to work and be a worker; it is to play and be a player - and thus be both a better worker and solve that happiness riddle alike. What we want is less work-life balance, more a recognition that the alpha and omega of good living is to know how to play - and to insert the play ethic into everything we do...Taking play seriously? Kane is certainly on to something fresh and insightful".

James Harkin, Financial Times and The Independent: "The Play Ethic fizzes with intellectual curiosity...Kane says much of the work we do today is intrinsically playful. We should stop thinking of playing as a distraction and start celebrating its benefits, such as added creativity, flexibility and dynamism. We should also redefine the way we think of ourselves and label ourselves "players" not "workers". In a jittery economic climate ridden with short-term contracts, Kane says it is folly to rely on one's job for character and identity.... Kane writes engagingly and with a humility difficult to find among idea-entrepreneurs".

Colin Donald, The Herald (Glasgow): "The Play Ethic is an outrageously ambitious grab bag of ideas, personal histories and exhortations, requiring a leap of faith in the mind of the reader...Ultimately only the grimmest of Scottish mindsets would hold back from embracing Pat Kane and his gospel of "soulitarianism". The heat and scope of his furiously synthesizing, allusive intellect adds up to an enormous, shouted Why Not?...The Play Ethic is short on prescriptions of what we can do - beyond being aware - to initiate a culture where we identify ourselves through our playing personae rather than our office selves, but even articulating the shift in emphasis makes a big difference. Kane has his head over the parapet, scanning the horizon. For his energy, his openness, his connectedness and his greed for the new, he gets the credit as well as the flak."

Gerald Haigh, Times Educational Supplement: "Kane's entertaining roller-coaster ride of a book strives to define a counter to the "work ethic", and to give it a philosophical underpinning, illustrated by reference to people and groups who are reaching for, or have achieved, a playful life of unbridled creativity".

Tim Cribb, South China Morning Post: "Pat Kane, a Scottish musician/journalist/commentator, argues in The Play Ethic that the time has come to get over the industrial revolution and play more by working less. Play isn't about shirking responsibility, but rather being more imaginative and confident about experimenting and taking chances...This book is a fascinating exposition on how we might all lead better lives."

Geof Cox, Organisations and People: "For me this book is a modern classic. Not as predictive as Megatrends or Future Shock in its style, not as concise a comment on modern social philosophy as some of Charles Handy’s writings, but an eloquent commentary on our current and future societal needs."

Bob Davis, Journal of Philosophy of Education: "The Play Ethic is a sophisticated critique of what we now habitually term 'late industrial society' and its obsession with the idea of work. The book fuels its critique by elaborating a rigorous theory of play that skilfully picks its way through the major theorists and studiously avoids stereotypical or self-indulgent representations of leisure or pleasure or idleness."