The Compass

As an adult you have responsibilities, and life settles into routine. Researchers have found that even in the most boring jobs, workers find ways to introduce elements of play to make the time pass, while people with more creative occupations use play to free their imaginations and release creativity. The Situationist art movement of 1950s Paris thought that play was a political act, and that the city could be used as a playground to rebel against the restrictions of capitalism. Their legacy lives on in the immersive “street games”, such as snakes and ladders played in multi storey car parks and city-wide zombie hunts. But this natural tendency to play is also being co-opted by employers, some of whom want to “gamify” boring jobs, to make workers more productive by turning the tasks into a game, or who encourage their employers to play at work to make them more creative. Can workers really be asked to play on demand, and what happens when they play in ways that the employers never expected or wanted?

Presenter: Steffan Powell

(Photo: Performers of The Free Association. Credit: Lidia Crisafulli)

As we grow into adolescence, the playfulness of childhood seems to disappear. Teenagers discovering their identity are engaged in a serious quest. There are unwritten rules to learn and to follow, and to be too spontaneous puts you at risk of ridicule. But while teenagers are less playful they are playing nonetheless, the obvious examples being sport and video games. As today’s teenagers live in a culture where the boundaries of the real and virtual are ever more fluid, video games offer a space free of adult supervision, where they can make friends (both on and offline), rehearse their identities, and accumulate “cultural capital”. Far from the stereotypes of the solitary gamer playing violent shooter games, many of today’s successful video games help teenagers to navigate issues of anxiety, depression, and identity. In Lagos, we find researchers using virtual reality games to help schoolchildren to understand and develop empathy for those from different ethnic backgrounds. And we ask whether playfulness can help teenagers and young adults communicate messages to potential partners.

Presenter: Steffan Powell.

(Photo: A teenager smiles as he plays a video game. Credit: Getty Images)

In the earliest years of our lives, play is crucial to building our understanding of our surroundings, culture and even ourselves. The UN considers play to be a fundamental right for every child, and a growing body of interdisciplinary research is leading to greater implementation across the globe. But how do we begin to define something that is so intrinsic to our human nature?

We look into the very beginnings of play and how our first interactions with adults have a lasting impact on the way we deal with later life. In Bangladesh, we drop in on Play Labs run by international development organisation BRAC which works to empower preschool children in deprived and fragile communities.

We learn about a Boston elementary school which uses guided recess – not only to keep kids physically and mentally well, but to teach them skills such as conflict resolution and leadership. How does play in those first few years of life affect the way we communicate, engage with, and understand the world? What’s at stake if we lose out?

Presenter: Steffan Powell

The road to democracy is rarely straightforward. There are steps forwards, and backwards, and times when it feels like you’re just not going anywhere at all. So what does the future hold for the countries of the 2011 Arab Spring Revolutions? Where can people look for hope now?

Abubakr and Ella al-Shamahi explore if Tunisia’s new democracy is at risk, after what some are calling the coup of July 2021, when the Tunisian President sacked the PM and assumed executive power. They ask what the solutions are for the war-torn countries of the Arab Spring, like Syria and Yemen, and consider what the legacy of 2011 is. Is it the youth who have an awareness of a revolutionary history and how far people will go to gain their freedom? Are the youth where we look for hope now?

(Photo: A Tunisian protester sits on top of a gate outside the parliament building in the capital Tunis, July 2021 follow the president's dismissal of Prime Minister, Hichem Mechichi. Credit: EPA)

While movement of people was a feature of the Middle East and North Africa (as it is worldwide) before the revolutions of the Arab Spring, there are now 11.7 million internally displaced people in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, and more than 2.7 million refugees across the region.

People are fleeing war and humanitarian disaster, economic problems and political persecution. Many have fled their homelands entirely, and many more have had to leave their homes and move to different parts of their home countries.

Brother and sister Abubakr and Ella Al-Shamahi speak to displaced people, all with different reasons for leaving their homes, and with different experiences in the years since 2011 - from a man living in a camp for internally displaced people in the last rebel held area of Syria, to their cousin, a political refugee living in exile in the UK.

Freedom is important - but what is the use of freedom if you can’t put food on the table? Ella al-Shamahi and Abubakr al-Shamahi look at the importance of the economy in starting the protest movement itself, and how the citizens of these regions view their economic standing a decade on. They speak with young Tunisians who are bearing the brunt of a devastated economy, and investigate how power is still tied up within economic opportunities under the rule of President Al Sisi. And they hear from one of the few monarchies in the region to experience protests - Jordan.

(Photo: A protester raises a loaf of bread in protest against police brutality, marginalisation and the economic, social crisis in Tunisia. Credit: Chedly Ben Ibrahim/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Across the region in 2011, protesters in their hundreds and thousands were all asking for the same thing - their freedom. Journalist Abubakr al-Shamahi and presenter Ella al-Shamahi examine how far human rights have progressed in the countries of the Arab Spring, turning first to the country so often held up as the success story of the Spring - Tunisia. Women were central to the mobilisation of protests here; Abubakr and Ella speak to activists and lawmakers to find out whether women are better off now than under Ben Ali’s dictatorship, which crumbled in 2011.

Then to Egypt, where quickly after the euphoria that erupted with the ousting of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptians witnessed a military coup that plummeted the country into an even tougher political climate. How do Egyptians keep hope alive now?

Producers: Sasha Edye-Lindner and Gaia Caramazza

(Photo: Supporters of Nahda Movement attend a rally marking the eighth anniversary of the Arab Spring, Tunis. Credit: Yassine Gaidi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Katy Long hears stories from refugees who have returned to their homeland, to those who have been resettled, and to those who are still in limbo, she examines how does a refugee crisis end.

(Photo: Afghan refugees seen during a protest outside the UNHCR office for various demands, 24 August, 2021, New Delhi, India. Credit: Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times/Getty Images)

Katy Long hears stories from refugees and those who work to support them from Rwanda to Russia, and Israel to Paraguay. She asks what do we owe refugees?

(Photo: A person holding a "refugees welcome" placard seen in the crowd. Credit: EPA)

In the aftermath of World War One, as Turkey filled with refugees fleeing a brutal civil war, the first refugee camps appeared and the international community stepped in to appoint the first High Commissioner for Refugees. In this first episode Katy Long hears stories from refugees and those who work to support them from Rwanda, Germany and Russia, as she examines how refugee crises begin, and who is considered a refugee.

(Photo: A queue of refugees awaits the assistances of Turkish relief organisations in Pazarkule camp on the border between Turkey and Greece. Credit: Belal Khaled/NurPhoto/Getty Images)