Il diritto (e i diritti) in gioco? La gamification tra “governo dei comportamenti”, strategie di sorveglianza e nuove forme di esercizio del potere

This article examines gamification as a normative technology that utilizes incentives to reconfigure metrics and reputations within non-game contexts. Starting from a revival of the magic circle theory, the contribution first reconsiders the liminal nature of play and subsequently investigates the intersections and links between gamification, nudging, and forms of behavioral governance. The observation of case studies proves decisive, highlighting how scoring functions as a semantic (and “weak” legal) operator, leading to significant implications in terms of surveillance, indoctrination, and distributive justice. Overall, this paper intends to investigate gamification with a dual purpose: to emphasize the utilization of the primal energy of play (as a testing ground) and, simultaneously, to prevent and avoid its transformation into a disciplinary device or a sort of “reputational machine” that neither provides for nor permits appeal.