ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates play in specific relationship to the dialectical unity, i.e. as an instantiation of learning leading development in the ZPD. It examines the concept of play itself in order to understand Vygotsky's contribution and its various uses by contemporary Vygotskians and others. In common belief and common practice in most industrial societies play is taken to be the main feature of childhood, but little consideration is given to its relevance for development or for learning. Play is associated with a host of other concepts and activities: games, imagination, fantasy, symbolic representation, pretending, performing, pleasure and fun, to name but a few. Vygotsky's analysis of play is most interesting. More evocative than definitive, this discussion is less unified than others, e.g. those on concepts or language and thinking. The developmental course of play is characterized by the changing positions of imaginary situations and rules in play activity.
