Settler colonialism’s playful geoglyphs: Richard Eberhardt, Mikael Jakobsson, ‘Invisible at the Edge: Playing with the Geoglyphs of Occupation in Anglo-America’,Proceedings of DIGRA, 2023 | settler colonial studies blog

Settler colonialism’s playful geoglyphs: Richard Eberhardt, Mikael Jakobsson, ‘Invisible at the Edge: Playing with the Geoglyphs of Occupation in Anglo-America’,Proceedings of DIGRA, 2023

24Nov23

Abstract: Maps are both a pervasive feature of a wide variety of board games and an important locus in postcolonial inquiry. In the words of Edward Said: “Just as none of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggles over geography. That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings.” We offer our analysis of board games telling spatial narratives of European settler colonialism in Anglo-American. through a critical reading of the way these games map the land and invite players to bring those maps alive through gameplay. The study expands on the tangential engagement with this topic in Flanagan and Jakobsson (2023). Our theoretical foundation includes Harley (1988), Scott (1998), Wolfe (2006), and Barnd (2017). We also build on video game research, especially that of Lammes (2003, 2010), Magnet (2006), and Mukherjee (2017). But it should be noted that all of these authors study video game. We have found the need to develop a parallel apparatus for the critical analysis of board games with their unique qualities in terms of materiality, player configurations, and role in the cultural discourse. Our methodological approach is rooted in critical theory and builds on interaction criticism (Bardzell 2011). We have acquired over two hundred of these games and played over a hundred of them. By building a substantial collection of colonialist themed board games and dedicating time to play through and analyze them, we have found emergent patterns that remain hidden as long as the games are studies separately.

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