Ben Schouten graduated in 1983 from the Rietveld Academy for Visual Arts. He works as a designer and was appointed full professor of Playful Interactions at the Department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology in 2010 and as a lector of Play & Civic Media at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in 2013. His work focuses on play and design for social innovations, citizen empowerment and culture. Together with Menno Deen, Schouten is working on another major publication about the Role of Play in Society to be published by Jap Sam Books medio 2023.