Playable Cities: An Introduction

Birdsall, Carolyn, Linda Kopitz, and Alex Gekker

Alex Gekker

Alex Gekker is Assistant Professor in Digital Research Methods at Media Studies, University of Amsterdam. His research develops critical theoretical frameworks for understanding digital media infrastructures, with particular focus on cartographic interfaces, platform epistemologies, and the politics of everyday digital objects. Using technographic and interfacial approaches, his work examines how platforms, maps, autonomous vehicles, and gaming ecosystems operate as sites of power and knowledge production. He has co-edited two collected volumes on digital mapping and his monograph Maps as Media will be published by Polity in 2026.

Dossiers, no. 3, vol. 10November 10, 2025<November 12, 2025

Playable Cities: An Introduction

Carolyn Birdsall, Linda Kopitz and Alex Gekker

The city is a playground. But is it really? This introduction to the Playable Cities dossier discusses how cities are built, how cities are navigated, and how cities are resisted with and through play.