Defamiliarizing the City: Play, Affect, and the Activation of Imaginaries

Radojevic, Radmila, Simeona Petkova, and Núria Arbonés Aran

Simeona Petkova

Simeona Petkova is a lecturer-researcher at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences/ Hogeschool Van Amsterdam. She currently researches online platforms (from a web epistemological perspective) and typologies of digital brand engagement. In her PhD dissertation with the Digital Methods Initiative at the University of Amsterdam, she develops and tests a framework for studying the dynamics of remembering and forgetting across social media platforms with historical (timestamped) data, considering the specificity of the platforms’ materiality. She has presented her research at MIT7, WPAC 2012, ECAH 2013, GOR 2015, International Forum RABE 2017, Social Movements and Parties in a Fractured Landscape, Cosmos, 2019, LAC 2022, and more.

Dossiers, no. 3, vol. 10November 10, 2025<November 14, 2025

Defamiliarizing the City: Play, Affect, and the Activation of Imaginaries

Radmila Radojevic, Simeona Petkova and Núria Arbonés Aran

Play activates our imagination, but it can also fall short in fostering real change. Radmila Radojevic, Simeona Petkova and Núria Arbonés Aran reflect on this tension in relation to rapidly changing neighborhoods.