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It argues that keeping the infinite game alive requires resisting “finite games” driven by winning, audit, and rule-bound participation. Through four vignettes, the authors address responsibility as critic and conscience, gendered leadership dilemmas, teaching and learning reciprocity, and contradictions in audited research identities.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-university-as-an-infinite-game-vol-59-2-revitalising-activism-in-the-academy/594693/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-university-as-an-infinite-game-vol-59-2-revitalising-activism-in-the-academy/594693.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Ben ","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-23","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":81},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What does the “infinite game” metaphor mean for universities?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It describes an open, inclusive way of living together that keeps the game in play and invites others in, supporting ongoing growth for individuals and communities.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How are “finite games” linked to the neoliberal university in the text?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Finite games are portrayed as rule-bound contests focused on winning, which mirror competitive market logic, efficiency, and evidence-based programs within the university.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What topics do the four vignettes cover?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"They focus on responsibility as critic and conscience turning inward to institutions, the dilemmas of women leaders, opportunities for teachers to “teach the university,” and contradictions faced by activist scholars in audited research identities.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},594693,1792208808,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":81,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":44,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},2336478951081,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W  \nThe university as an infinite game  \nRevitalising activism in the academy  \nNiki Harré, Barbara M Grant, Kirsten Locke & Sean Sturm University of Auckland  \nWe offer here a metaphor of the university as an ‘infinite game’ in which we bring to life insight, imagination, and radical inclusion; and resist the ‘finite games’ that can lead us astray. We suggest that keeping the infinite game alive within universities is a much-needed form of academic activism. We offer four vignettes that explore this further: our responsibility to be ‘critic and conscience of society’ and how that responsibility must also turn inwards onto our own institution, the dilemmas of being a woman with leadership responsibilities in an institution that proudly shows off its ‘top girls’, the opportunities we have as teachers to ‘teach the university’ and be taught by our students, and the contradictions we face as activist scholars in our relentlessly audited research personas. We draw on the infinite/finite game metaphor, our own affective experiences as tenured academics, and feminist critiques.  \nKeywords: neoliberal university, infinite game, activism, feminism, academic identities, gender, resistance, New Zealand, STARs, PBRF  \nWe start with a proposal: that in the university, as in life, there are two kinds of games. One is the infinite game, the purpose of which is to keep the game in play and invite others in; the other is finite games, in which the purpose is to win (Carse, 1986; Harré, in press) .The infinite game is a symbol of our potential as people living together to be open and inclusive, and to promote the life, and growth, that helps us flourish as individuals and communities.This game imagines a world in which our heartfelt, personal response to life, our deep listening to others (especially those who don’t fit in), and our careful observations and thought about the social, natural and physical world come together to create and recreate our institutions. As Carse claimed,‘there is but one infinite game’(p. 149). Thus, insofar as the infinite game is played within the academy, it seeps into, strengthens, and can draw strength from infinite play in other sites.  \nThe other kind of game, finite games, is bound by rules that must be followed until a winner is declared. Finite  \ngames tend to replicate, like McDonalds’ franchises or‘evidence-based’ social programs. You must be selected to play and, if you lose, you are knocked out or have to play the round again. Finite games can be useful, indeed are essential, to organise ourselves and to train people for valuable roles. And they can promote self-development. But if they are taken too seriously, they render the infinite game obscure and the community spellbound – unable to articulate their sense that the current rules are misaligned, harmful or a distraction from what really matters.  \nFor us, activism in the academy springs from and serves the infinite game: it is action beyond the rules that calls us to take our intuitions, lived experience and observations of injustice and exclusion seriously. Academic activism aims to document, subvert and ultimately rewrite the rules of the finite games we currently live by, so that they make more sense to us as people seeking to give of our best to an endeavour (‘the university’) that we cannot help but believe in. In what follows, and with the desire to  \nvol. 59, no. 2, 2017 The university as an infinite game Niki Harré, Barbara M Grant, Kirsten Locke & Sean Sturm 5  \nA U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W  \nprovide resources for revitalising activism in the academy, we explore the possibilities and complexities of academic activism through four vignettes. Each vignette is written by one of the four authors.We are all tenured academics, and therefore write from this perspective. Each vignette takes up a defining aspect of the academic role: our responsibility to be critic and co","cbCaicCpoF2abhOU","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicCpoF2abhOU","pdf",120135,"English","# The university as an infinite game\n## Infinite games and finite games\n## Activism in the academy\n## Four author vignettes","[{\"question\":\"What does the “infinite game” metaphor mean for universities?\",\"answer\":\"It describes an open, inclusive way of living together that keeps the game in play and invites others in, supporting ongoing growth for individuals and communities.\"},{\"question\":\"How are “finite games” linked to the neoliberal university in the text?\",\"answer\":\"Finite games are portrayed as rule-bound contests focused on winning, which mirror competitive market logic, efficiency, and evidence-based programs within the university.\"},{\"question\":\"What topics do the four vignettes cover?\",\"answer\":\"They focus on responsibility as critic and conscience turning inward to institutions, the dilemmas of women leaders, opportunities for teachers to “teach the university,” and contradictions faced by activist scholars in audited research identities.\"}]","The university as an infinite game - Vol 59 - 2 - Revitalising activism in the academy | PDF",1792079652,23]