International Summer Seminar Playful Knowledge: Exploring the World through Games

WHEN: from 14 to 19 September 2026

WHERE: Hill Počakovo by Radeče (Slovenia) 

This is the fourth International Summer Seminar on Playful Knowledge. It has been focusing on the epistemic significance of ludic practices: How does play afford an understanding of natural and social worlds alike, how does it inform scientific experimentation as well as reenforce prejudicial views about urban crime? This year‘s focus is on the experience of playing and how it challenges us to come to terms with questions of agency and mastery, contingency and control. "God does not play dice!" The irrefutability of chance seems scandalous in Einstein‘s famous dictum. Gamblers share this sentiment as do the players of card games from childhood on: Does winning or losing depend entirely on the "luck of the draw" and not at all on skill or the agency of the player? How do we assert ourselves and gain control in a world of chance?  Born under a lucky star, a rider of fortune, a hazardeur - what does it signify if luck is on your side? What does it signify in the I Ching, in archaic games of drawing lots, in the age of charismatic capitalism? How do the stochastics and correlations of platform capitalism and AI relate to causality? What is the role of chance, of the statistical outlier in these systems? Along with social and epistemic reflections of fortune and fate, the participants of seminar will discuss how we know the world playfully is explored through game design, gamers‘ experiences, game theory, gambling pathologies, or literary and media representations. 

The summer seminar will be held in English, featuring engaging lectures and plenty of interactive activities and discussions. The summary seminar is also a unique opportunity for various forms of professional networking with lecturers and students from the University of Bayreuth, the University of Darmstadt and University Passau in Germany, the University of California in the USA, University Ljubljana in Slovenia, who participate annually in the summer seminar at Počakovo. 

Expression of interest to participate at summar seminar: please contact Prof. Dr. Franc Mali on e-mail address: franc.mali@fdv.uni-lj.si

Learn more about this event on the link.