LUDEX: Digital Play Practices as Pathways to Extremism
LUDEX: Digital Play Practices as Pathways to Extremism
Name of applicant
Lauritz Holm Petersen
Title
Researcher
Institution
Oxford Brookes University
Amount
DKK 2,676,845
Year
2026
Type of grant
Internationalisation Fellowships
What?
LUDEX investigates how playful engagement with extremist content unfolds across fringe and mainstream online platforms. It studies mediated forms of play, such as trolling, role-play, conspiratorial knowledge play, and gamified extremism, examining how these practices are shaped by specific digital environments and under what conditions they may develop into committed extremist orientations.
Why?
Conventional theories of extremism are increasingly challenged by new developments in online extremism, in which extreme content is becoming more hybridized, performative, and able to move from fringe spaces into mainstream platforms. By applying a play-theoretical framework, LUDEX aims to strengthen how researchers, policymakers, and intelligence agencies understand these developments.
How?
LUDEX combines insights from play theory, psychology, radicalization research, and digital media studies. It examines user-generated content from 4chan, Reddit, and TikTok using computational data analysis alongside digital ethnography, tracing how playful participation in extremist culture develops across platforms, over time, and at different analytical levels.