Pollak Williamson, Catalina;
(2025)
Radical Play: Participatory Tactics and Pedagogies for Urban Transformation.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This doctoral research develops Radical Play as a conceptual and methodological framework for rethinking tactical processes for urban transformation. Challenging the instrumentalisation of play in mainstream participatory processes and placemaking strategies, it argues that play’s liminal and subversive nature – operating beyond the bounds of structural normativity – opens up a space of radical possibility. Through this lens, play is understood as a political and epistemic practice: a situated, relational, embodied, and affective mode of knowing through which alternative social relationships, political identities, and collective urban imaginaries can emerge and take form. In response to deepening urban inequalities and the erosion of collective life under neoliberal urbanism, the research offers a critical lens for interrogating the spatialised dynamics of power that shape everyday life. Using layered autoethnography, it analyses a series of participatory interventions co-developed by the author across Latin America and Europe, exploring how Radical Play can challenge hegemonic ideologies, build collective capacity, and reclaim urban space as a site of commoning and mutual care. These interventions function as both empirical sites of inquiry and methodological experiments through which the possibilities and limitations of Radical Play are critically explored. Ultimately, the thesis contributes to radical urban scholarship, participatory design, and critical pedagogies by proposing Radical Play as a tactical and pedagogical dispositif for reimagining the city otherwise. It offers both theoretical insight and grounded methodology for those seeking to mobilise play as a transformative force within broader struggles for spatial justice and urban democracy.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Radical Play: Participatory Tactics and Pedagogies for Urban Transformation |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Development Planning Unit |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10211731 |
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