Online social media is not living up to its promise to offer alternative arenas promoting civic deliberation among people with diverse opinions. In the wake of this perceived failure of the online environment, activists, educators and scholars alike have begun to turn to alternative forms of civic engagement, both online, offline and mixed. Larp, live role playing, is one such form. Larps create cultural, artistic spaces offering great potential for alternative engagement with politics.

Furthermore, Larps are not restricted to physical space. Rather, larp exemplify how social spaces can be deliberately and collaboratively designed to be conductive of inclusivity and democratic engagement. Studying larp, enhancing their capacity of supporting democratic engagement and political expression, and learning from them to inspire the deliberate design of social media and other spaces for political expression, thus directly answers to the call topic and opens unique opportunities for the design of future spaces for democratic deliberation, including future social media.