TRACK 7: Play and Playwork 2 Curated by Meynell
Room 8
26
The nature connection
This will be a loosely structured session with brief inputs on the importance of human connection and experience with the natural world and the ideas of nature deficit disorder and Eco-literacy. Using ‘journeying’ to open up our own imaginations on the subject, we will become Avatars of new playwork theory. Bring a headscarf or bandana and be willing to use your imagination.
1.5 hours beginner / intermediate 10:00-11:30
27
Play as idleness
Play as Idleness is a semi-serious, oppression alleviating meander among the tangled and paradoxical relationships between fun, frivolity and industry which may come to characterize playwork as the truly idle profession. As Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “Idleness…does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognized in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class.”
1 hour intermediate 11:45-12:45
28
The Play Menu ( Curriculum)
What is it and how do we plan around it?
Understanding the playwork curriculum as an approach to planning for settings – what is it and how do we meet it within our settings?
(including ideas for trainers on how to deliver this theory)
1.5 hours Intermediate 13:45-15:15
29
Has playwork theory taken the place of ideology
This workshop aspires to being sociological and philosophical. It adopts a social constructionist approach, viewing theory as the product of the creator, time, place and social circumstances in which it is produced. It poses questions such as:
In what ways can the theory of Loose Parts be seen as a product of Simon Nicholson’s life and experiences in the US and UK in the 1970’s?
What are the implications of the theory of loose parts for UK playwork and playworkers today?
What is the fit between Loose Parts theory and playwork practice, forty years on?
The workshop will also overview playwork theory and the different traditions that inform it, asking is there a need to re – radicalise the playwork tradition and considering whether playwork theory has taken the place of playwork ideology?
This is not a practical playwork session of the “new things to do with loose parts variety”: it is an opportunity for political debate: but not for whinging!
For all its aspirations and the language of the opening paragraph, this workshop is for everyone interested in the topic. The approach will incorporate the abilities and interests of those attending: so do come!
1.5 hours Intermediate / advanced 15:30-17:00
Organised by 
in a better enviroment 