The High Seas, the areas of the ocean beyond national jurisdiction, are experiencing a starkincrease in industrial activities, ranging from fishing to deep sea mining to offshore oil and gasextraction. Marine resources are exploited unsustainably and the benefits of this exploitationare shared unequally. This suggests the need for a transformation, a shift in the deeper structuresof the system, such as underlying paradigms and mind-sets. Engaging with alternative futuresby employing imaginative scenarios can help to question current unsustainable trajectories,uncover alternate possibilities as well as offer aspirational visions of the future. In this thesis, Iargue that depictions of the future that are mere extrapolations of the present do not account fornon-linear changes and surprise, do not explore how current trajectories can be changed andconstrain the capacity to imagine possible futures. Instead, I use a method to address this gapby combining computational text analysis with a structured yet creative scenario buildingapproach. This process results in four science fiction scenario stories, which account for thecomplexity of the system, embrace future uncertainty and engage the imagination, thusdescribing truly novel, transformed futures. The scenario stories are then related back to currentrealities, using the concept of imaginaries, demonstrating that radically futuristic stories can betraced back to the scientific evidence they were based upon. In reference to these results, I arguethat engaging with creative scenario stories can open up transformative spaces to reimagine therelationships between humans and the oceans they depend upon. Further, the scenario storiespresented in this thesis emphasize the vastness of future option space, the plurality of possiblefutures and the subsequent need to continuously explore these uncertain futures from a diversityof perspectives, employing a diversity of methods.

How we imagine and the potency of alternative imaginings to socio-political concerns are vital questions for social science, and worldbuilding is a particular and understudied method of doing so. It is the creative making of fictional, imaginative worlds, offering a potential alternative method to imagine otherwise. This paper ethnographically explicates this craft through detailing how creators, known as worldbuilders, make their worlds, demonstrating how it is generative and impactful for them emotionally, intellectually, and politically. It is based of three months of online ethnographic/netnographic fieldwork across the multiple online ‘sites’ worldbuilders are active, particularly a forum and chatroom, as well as digital interviews with sixteen individual worldbuilders. I argue that worldbuilding is a process of toying with ontologies, which I call ontogenous play. I explain this through detailing what is dubbed making the imaginary – the worldbuilding process – going through the particulars of the process and the experiences of interlocutors, demonstrating how one achieves situated transcendence through it, and the generativity of that. In light of these observations, I also argue that worldbuilding is an art, attending to the ramifications of that designation. I draw upon anthropological understandings of making, processes, liminality, and ontologies to advance the argument, as well as the emergent scholarship on worldbuilding from ‘sub-creation studies’, and the erudite hypotheses of my interlocutors.

The present master's thesis with the title "Rise and Development of a Historical Event - Historico-Anthropological View of the History of Overseas Discoveries" discusses the rise and development of a historical event through the sociocultural point of view. It discusses how the sociocultural peculiarities of the society at that time influenced the shaping of events that later became an important historical account from the historians' perspective. One of the substantial methodological resources for the present study is the approach developed by Michele de Certeau and his theoretical elaboration of the process called "writing of history". The first chapter deals with the historical anthropology as the methodological approach in the historical investigation. The second chapter focuses on Michele de Certeau and his studies in the field of historiography. In the third chapter there is a historical overview called "The Century of Overseas Discoveries" focusing on the century when the crucial historical events took place - great discovery voyages. The fourth and fifth chapters are based on the previous theoretical texts on historical anthropology and Michele de Certeau. The aim of this master's thesis is to relate these new approaches of historical investigation to the presented topic of the history of...

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This paper is an empirical study examining the reasoning behind Swedish adults’ choices of attending Korean language programs in the Republic of Korea. By using anthropological modes of inquiry and methods such as participant observation and different qualitative interviews, the focus of the research is on the mental processes behind these choices. Through a utilization of the analytical concept of imagination, what is argued is that these individuals’ choices are engendered and regulated by several factors, such as engagement with Korean culture-products and certain practical conditions, but that the greatest importance lies with their own understandings and agency.

Architectus ludens. L’architecte est un joueur. L’analogie est plutôt commune, un tantinet romantique. L’architecte s’amuse avec les formes, les matières, les ombres et la lumière, comme l’enfant qui joue, il « crée un monde à son idée ». Cet essai propose de prendre au sérieux cette posture, et de considérer le projet architectural et urbain comme la fabrique d’une illusion que l’architecte partagerait avec la société. L’auteur suit ainsi la voie ouverte par Sigmund Freud qui comparait l’artiste à l’enfant joueur. A sa suite, Donald Woods Winnicott établira le phénomène transitionnel du jeu, qui permet au nourrisson d’exister et inaugure sa capacité à imaginer, comme la racine de la créativité humaine. Sur la base de cette théorie le projet architectural est envisagé comme le trajet qui conduit de l’espace du libre jeu à la conception d’un jeu réglé, un jouet ou un terrain de jeu partagé.Si tous les architectes sont, au fond, des joueurs, cette qualité apparaît plus nettement dans le moment ludique qui fait suite à l’effondrement du paradigme moderne. Des années 1950 jusqu’à la fin des années 1970, les artistes ont cherché à renouveler leurs pratiques en opposant l’expérience du jeu à l’œuvre d’art qui en est le produit. « Everywhere as playground ». Le monde entier devait alors devenir une grande aire de jeu, pour reprendre la formule d’Allan Kaprow. Les architectes ont suivi ce mouvement et de nombreux projets de cette période se démarquent par leur caractère explicitement ludique.Afin d’offrir aux architectes une boussole pour qu’ils ne se perdent pas dans leur jeu, l’essai propose une matrice de quatre règles du jeu. Elle vise à théoriser quatre manières de faire illusion, quatre techniques d’interprétation de l’environnement La première enquête porte sur l’ivresse du labyrinthe, illustrée par New Babylon, cette immense ville labyrinthique conçue par l’artiste plasticien Constant Nieuwenhuys suivant le concept de l’urbanisme unitaire théorisé par l’Internationale Situationniste. Elle nous conduit à théoriser la notion de situation comme résultante d’un jeu de distraction, qui nous détourne de l’espace-temps fonctionnel pour nous recentrer sur les énergies du corps en échange avec l’environnement. La magie des jouets est la deuxième règle du jeu étudiée en prenant l’exemple du Teatro del Mondo, ce petit théâtre flottant éphémère imaginé par l’architecte milanais Aldo Rossi pour le renouveau du Carnaval vénitien. L’architecture y est analysée comme un jeu de re‑présentation qui permet de faire symbole, une forme renvoyant aux événements de nos mémoires. C’est ensuite la combinatoire des jeux de construction qui est analysée en observant le Fun Palace, cette université populaire dédié à la créativité, et dessiné par l’architecte britannique Cedric Price comme un chantier naval reconfigurable à l’infini par ses usagers. Cette architecture sous-déterminée est associée à l’opération qui consiste à faire diagramme, à établir un réseau de relations à actualiser par le jeu de l’interprétation. Enfin, le dernier essai porte sur la systémique des jeux de stratégie et examine le World Game de l’architecte américain Richard Buckminster Fuller, un jeu de simulation stratégique pacifique qui détourne les jeux de guerre de l’armée américaine pour donner aux citoyens du monde les manettes du Vaisseau Spatial « Terre ». Il renvoie au jeu de la com‑préhension permettant de faire carte.Les quatre illusions étudiées renvoient finalement à quatre postures possibles pour l’architecte qui peut choisir de les combiner à sa guise dans la fabrique de ses projets. Il s’agit de lui donner les outils réflexifs qui l’aideront à développer sa propre grammaire architecturale. A travers la posture de l’architectus ludens, l’auteur dessine les contours d’une éthique de l’imaginaire. Elle exige de toujours remonter au libre jeu pour réinitialiser les règles de chaque projet, guidé par le désir du jeu qui fonde l’humain. / Architectus ludens. The architect is a player. The analogy is rather common, maybe a tad romantic. The architect enjoys playing with shapes, materials, shadows and light, like a child who plays, he “creates a world to his idea”. The following essay suggests taking this posture seriously, and to consider the architectural and urban project as the factory of an illusion that the architect would share with society. The author follows the path opened by Sigmund Freud, who compared the artist to the child player. Following his footsteps, Donald Woods Winnicott had established the transitional phenomenon of play, which enable the infant existence and inaugurate his ability to imagine, as the root of human creativity. The architectural project is then defined as the path that leads from the free play space to the design of a set game, a shared playground.If this hypothesis applies to the general case of the project – all architects are players – it is clearly expressed in the playful moment that follows the collapse of the modern paradigm. From the 1950s until the late 1970s, artists sought to renew their practices by opposing the experience of play to the work of art as an object. The whole world was to become a great playground, to use the formula of Allan Kaprow, «Everywhere as Playground». The architects followed this movement and many emblematic projects of this period stand out by their explicit playful nature.To offer the playful architects a compass so that they do not get lost in their plays, the essay then proposes a matrix of four playing rules which allows to theorize four ways of illusion, four techniques of interpretation of the environment.The first investigation deals with the desorientation of the labyrinth, illustrated by New Babylon, this immense labyrinthic city conceived by the artist Constant Nieuwenhuys, following the concept of unitary urbanism theorized by the Internationale Situationiste. It leads us to theorize the notion of situation as result of a distracting play, which diverts us from the functional space-time to refocus on the energies of the body exchanging with the environment. The magic of toys is the second rule studied by taking the example of the Teatro del Mondo, a small ephemeral floating theatre imagined by the Milanese architect Aldo Rossi for the revival of the Venetian carnival. The architecture is theorized as a re-presentation play that allows to make a symbol, a form referring to the events of our memories. It is then the combination of the construction games that is analyzed by observing the Fun Palace, this popular university dedicated to creativity, and designed by the British architect Cedric Price as a shipyard that can be infinitely reconfigured by its users. This subspecific kind of architecture is mapped by the diagram tool, which establishes a network of relationships to be updated by the interpretation play. The final essay focuses on the systemics of strategic games and examines the World Game of the American architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, a peaceful strategic simulation game that derived from the American Army’s war games to give Citizens of the world the joysticks of the «Earth» spacecraft. The associated creative operation it is that of making a map through the play of comprehension.The four illusions studied finally refer to four possible postures for the architect who can choose to combine them as he wants in the making of his projects. It is about giving him the reflexive tools that will help him develop his own architectural grammar. The author does not propose recipes for illusion, but he draws the outline of an ethical posture that requires to always go back to the free play in order to reset the rules of each project, guided by the desire of playing that creates the human being.

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