The Game of our Lives

In her book The Infinite Game: how to live well together, psychology professor and activist Dr Niki Harré asks us to imagine our world anew. What if we are all part of a different type of game entirely – a game in which playing matters more than winning, where anyone can join at any time, and where rules evolve as new players turn up? 

At Going West 2018, Niki was joined on stage by her sister, political activist and former MP Laila Harré. In a provocative and interactive session, the Harrés open a conversation on what we value most deeply, how we keep those values in play and how we engage with the world and with each other.

The session included an audience participation section, where everyone present got to join a paper dart game that helped illustrate and inform the conversation.

The infinite game project was started by Niki Harré at the University of Auckland. The project was inspired by James Carse’s book Finite and Infinite Games, a wonderful work of scholarship and poetry that offers a new metaphor to help understand our time. 

The Infinite Game was the winner of the 2019 Ashton Wylie Mind, Body & Spirit Literary Award.