Skip to main content
Taylor & Francis Group Logo
Advanced Search

Click here to search books using title name,author name and keywords.

  • Login
  • Hi, User  
    • Your Account
    • Logout
Advanced Search

Click here to search books using title name,author name and keywords.

Breadcrumbs Section. Click here to navigate to respective pages.

Chapter

Utopian visions of childhood and play in English social policy

Chapter

Utopian visions of childhood and play in English social policy

DOI link for Utopian visions of childhood and play in English social policy

Utopian visions of childhood and play in English social policy book

Utopian visions of childhood and play in English social policy

DOI link for Utopian visions of childhood and play in English social policy

Utopian visions of childhood and play in English social policy book

BySTUART LESTER, WENDY RUSSELL
BookYouth Sport, Physical Activity and Play

Click here to navigate to parent product.

Edition 1st Edition
First Published 2013
Imprint Routledge
Pages 13
eBook ISBN 9780203147436

ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the relationship between understandings of the nature and benefits of children’s play within English social policy and within research into children’s everyday expressions of playing in largely adult-produced and -regulated spaces. We suggest that policy constructs ‘play’ as an object that is defined, bounded and classified. This construction is then applied in a causal manner to the design of play provision to produce spaces that are also defined, bounded and purposeful. This ordering (placing) of children’s play, and its associated productions of space, represents a narrow and instrumental value based upon a distant, future-focused utopian vision of the nature and purpose of childhood. The chapter critiques this modernist form of utopian vision through Bauman’s (2003) two attributes of policy ‘projects’, namely fixity/finality and territoriality. This is then set alongside alternative perspectives in contemporary play scholarship that point to a broader value of play as a disposition that seeks to create time/spaces that disrupt and disturb the taken-for-granted ordering of the (adult) world. Such time/spaces afford moments of excitement and pleasure, representing an alternative present and near-utopian vision of being a child, and enabling life to simply ‘go on’ (resilience). This raises challenges both for policy makers and for practitioners within the play sector.

T&F logoTaylor & Francis Group logo
  • Policies
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Cookie Policy
  • Journals
    • Taylor & Francis Online
    • CogentOA
    • Taylor & Francis Online
    • CogentOA
  • Corporate
    • Taylor & Francis Group
    • Taylor & Francis Group
    • Taylor & Francis Group
    • Taylor & Francis Group
  • Help & Contact
    • Students/Researchers
    • Librarians/Institutions
    • Students/Researchers
    • Librarians/Institutions
  • Connect with us

Connect with us

Registered in England & Wales No. 3099067
5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG © 2021 Informa UK Limited