Description
Book SynopsisThe postwar years in the UK saw the development of numerous artificial playgrounds intended to compensate children for increasing urbanization and a lack of wild places to play. Many of these sites employed playleaders, whose job was to use play to instill social behavioral norms on children, using games with rules and organized activities. From the early 1970s, that approach began to be replaced by playwork, a nondirective way of working. Playwork marked a rejection of the adult-focused practice of playleadership. Playworkers relied more on an ambiance that reflected their own childhood freedoms and on the growing body of knowledge regarding the importance of play. This body of new literature suggested that play, unadulterated by societal objectives, was crucial to the successful development of all children; that play was not just good for exercise and social interaction, but was vital to brain growth and the child's ability to adapt to a fast changing world. Since those early days,
Table of ContentsList of Tables and Figures Foreword, Jim Johnson Acknowledgments Introduction, Bob Hughes Chapter 1: Three Reflective Tools for Playwork Practice, Sarah Wilson Chapter 2: Nonsense, Caring and Everyday Hope: Rethinking the Value of Playwork, Wendy Russell Chapter 3: The Neoliberalisation of Childhood and the Future of Playwork, Mike Wragg Chapter 4: Where Do Playworkers Get the Knowledge that Informs the Responses They Make to Children?, Kelda Lyons Chapter 5: Playwork in America: Past, Current and Future Trends, Michael Patte, with contributions from Alex Cote, Rusty Keeler, Suzanna Law and Morgan Leichter-Saxby Chapter 6: Playwork and the Co-creation of Play Spaces: The Rhythms and Refrains of a Play Environment, Stuart Lester Chapter 7: Therapeutic Playwork: Theory and Practice, Fraser Brown Chapter 8: The Might of Play as Possibility and Power, Sylwyn Guilbaud Chapter 9: The Land, Dave Bullough, Claire Pugh and Ben Tawil Chapter 10: The Playground as Palimpsest, Joel Seath Chapter 11: Adventure Playgrounds: A Brief History, Tony Chilton Chapter 12: Hysterical About Playwork, Maxine Delorme Chapter 13: Quantum of Playwork—Playful Rhetorics Relating to Sub-atomic Activity in Play Moments and a Playworker’s Responses, Bob Hughes Index Contributors
