Whether we are competing for a job, studying for a
degree or worrying about our retirement income, some
days it feels as if we humans are just bit players in ‘The
Game of Life’. By following the rules and accumulating
more wealth and happiness than the next person, maybe
one day we might just win. But is life in fact a finite
game – a game of selection and rules, winners and losers,
players and spectators?

In The Infinite Game, Niki Harré asks us to imagine our
world anew. What if we are all part of a very different
type of game – a game in which playing matters more
than winning, a game that anyone can join any time, a
game in which rules evolve as new players turn up, an
infinite game? The Infinite Game looks at our society
(are people pawns or participants?) and ourselves (are
we ready for others to come in and change the rules?)
to offer a deeply inspiring vision of how we might live
well together. Informed by psychological research, Niki
Harré’s provocative book teaches us all how to play life as
an infinite game.

Niki Harré

Niki Harré is an associate professor of psychology at the
University of Auckland. She is the author of highly cited
articles on youth and activism and is editor, with Quentin
Atkinson, of the book Carbon Neutral by 2020: How New
Zealanders Can Tackle Climate Change.