The Infinite Game ― How to Live Well Together

Whether we are competing for a job, building a business or championing a good cause, some days it can feel as if we are trapped in an endless competition for status, wealth, or attention. Maybe if we learn to play the game and follow the rules we’ll come out on top. But is life really 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 different type of game entirely—where playing matters more than winning, anyone can join at any time, and rules evolve as new players turn up—an infinite game? Harré looks at our society (are people pawns or participants?) and ourselves (what kind of player would you like to be?) to offer an inspiring vision of how we might live well together. Deeply informed by psychological research and a life of social activism, Niki Harré’s provocative book teaches us all how we might live life as an infinite game.

Niki Harré is associate professor of psychology at the University of Auckland. She is the author of numerous scholarly papers on community psychology, youth development and social change, as well as the book Psychology for a Better World: Working with People to Save the Planet. She has conducted numerous "infinite game" workshops in New Zealand and overseas.