Introduction

The anthropologist Michael Agar once described his vocation as that of a professional stranger - a participant observer, whose paradoxical relationship with his place of work meant that he was neither participant nor observer, nor both, but all three. Like many other scholars, anthropologists occupy an ambiguous place: of the academy but when in the field, partially of that place. In the UK, as education has become more and more target-driven, from a younger and younger age play has become linked to early-years education in often overtly instrumentalist ways, while the growing emphasis in work and school on creativity has seen play co-opted in efforts to secure marginal market success. It is in spirit of shifting sands and paradoxes of being in and out that the play-philosophy nexus is becoming so exciting. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses play's eternal paradoxes stretching from East to West.