Book excerpt: This book explores whether the metaphors of ‘playground’ and ‘battlefield’ might be analytically meaningful terms for understanding contemporary society. The duality of playgrounds and battlefields is presented as a space of continuous becoming, related to the recreation, domination and experience of a place, as well as to corresponding practices of excess, interaction and enjoyment. We believe that a discussion about engagement and responsibility in a modern social setting is possible only through new concepts that avoid binary formulations. Playgrounds and battlefields are thus used as a trigger enabling a fresh approach to a contemporaneity that is highly influenced by the way in which societies deal with their past and future. In this sense, the ‘Playgrounds and Battlefields’ volume is a thematic one, mapping the field and offering grammar of possibility.