Brain Food

I thought it would be grand to give you yet more excitement so created this track for the exciting sessions that couldn't be fitted in anywhere else.

Playing on the edge: Playwork and social ecology - Adrian Voce

This presentation will consider a play advocacy response to the climate emergency and the profound questions it raises about the sustainability of normative constructs of civilization, society, economics and education. We will look at playwork practice and some of its theoretical underpinnings within the context of ecological systems theory and, especially, the evolutionary perspectives of Bookchin's analysis of social ecology. This work informed some of the last writings of the late playwork theorist Gordon Sturrock. We will explore this engagement and endeavour to develop these ideas; to situate playwork theory within this discourse and consider what it might mean for policy and practice.

TIME: 9:30 - 10:30 LENGTH: 1 hour

How Covid Revealed the Social Life of Play - Professor Anna Beresin

Does anyone ever really play solo? Even when alone we play out stories connected to people, power, and culture. What has the time of lockdown taught us about play? Come ready to share stories about what you have observed about Covid times in your area. What might it mean for play advocacy if play is fundamentally social? What needs changing now? Check out Anna's free new book, coedited with Dr. Julia Bishop, 'Play in a Covid Frame: Everyday Pandemic Creativity in a Time of Isolation.' It includes writings by play workers, researchers, and advocates from 12 different countries and tips for play advocacy collected from discussions with the book's many authors. Anna will share images,too. www.open bookpublishers.com/ books/10.11647/obp.0326

TIME: 10:45 - 11:45 LENGTH: 1 hour

Reframing the role of smartphones in outdoor play - Chris Martin

Smartphones are commonly argued to have an adverse impact on children's outdoor play. I challenge these notions to demonstrate how they can contribute to play in rich, natural environments, offering creative and unique affordances which add complexities and depth. Through extensive fieldwork I highlight vignettes showing how smartphones can interweave with natural elements, enhancing moments of play in the physical spaces in which they are performed. I argue however that how smartphones integrate depends on the play-skills and experience of children, how well they have learnt to read and intra-act with the outdoor environment, and the affect of nonhuman bodies, such as trees, rocks and pathways which mediate the impact of technology.

TIME: 12:00 - 13:00 LENGTH: 1 hour

Anarcho Playwork - Tony Delahoy

This workshop will explore the anarchist perspective of play as a naturally occurring example of anarchy in action. This argument will be supported by literature and draw on some well established theories and ideas on play and will draw from a range of perspectives. We will then explore the implications for the playworker and their practice. The benefits and challenges of the anarcho-playwork approach will be explored and we will draw on established playwork and play theory to support the argument for anarcho-playwork. A new approach to playwork based on long established understandings offered by this model, which have been almost lost in the mists of time.

TIME: 13:15 - 14:00 LENGTH: 1 hour