ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is Foucault’s (2000) notion of heterotopia as spaces which fall somewhere between utopia and reality. Heterotopias are places in which cultural iconography, their artefacts, routines and rituals, set them apart from the usual workings of the social world outside their parameters. My first encounter with heterotopia was in the theorisation of my PhD which used ethnomethodology to study social pedagogy in early years’ settings and primary schools (Shaw, 2017). This chapter continues the journey by carrying heterotopic methodology into playwork. As in all the chapters the quest is to (re)cognise and (re)conceptualise work with children and young people. In order to do this, it is necessary to make the familiar strange, to seek out what may be concealed or rarely spoken out loud. In other words, to engage with the complexity of work (and play), with children and young people.
