Plac zabaw jako miejsce dla dzieci vs. miejsce dzieci

The content of the article is an analysis of two different concepts of children’s playgrounds, one of which is a standard urban/pre-school playground, reproduced in countless variations, and the other is an individualised variation of an adventure playground. The criterion of the analysis was the concept of a non-place by Marc Augé and the pedagogical concept of a place by Maria Mendel, Dorota Klus-Stańska, Jolanta Zwiernik. The analysis has identified two types of discourses that characterize adult organizers of children’s playgrounds: care discourse and emancipatory discourse. The care discourse is a manifestation of concern for children’s safety and it is revealed in the organization of space and delimitation of children’s activity in standard playgrounds, which makes it a place for children (non-place in the Augé concept). The emancipatory discourse makes use of the educational advantages offered by adventure playgrounds and by creating the conditions to increase the participation of children in the life of their community now and in the future makes them children’s place.

Warunki do zabawy na Przygodowym Placu Zabaw w Berkeley Marina w Kalifornii

The following publication is an attempt to describe observed reality, especially in terms of conditions provided for play. This article is the result of author’s research visit at the City of Berkeley’s Marina Adventure Playground. During the visit the author had the opportunity to attend the unique and dynamic play environment of adventure playground in Berkeley Marina that enables its users to saw, hammer, build forts, play with water and fire. At the same time the it was designed in the way that encourages to play not only children’s but also adults. The presented content includes: the concept of playground in Berkley, its the design of space and play equipment, its policy and role of play leaders. The research methodology included qualitative procedure. Qualitative analysis, ethnographic observation and qualitative research interview has been used.

Co-creating spaces on an adventure playground: using participatory action research as an approach to continuing professional development

Using participatory action research as an approach to reflective playwork practice and continuous professional development this research took place on an Adventure Playground in London. Key themes include co-investigation; reflective playwork practice; dialogue; mapping; story-telling; and working with meaning. The adventure playground team brought a critical and reflective lens to the production of the Adventure Playground, its everyday rhythms, routines and habits, and the ways in which adults and children co-create play spaces. It also brought opportunities to experiment with approaches that could deepen understandings of play and playwork practice in a variety of situations from training courses to conference workshops leading to more relevant and reflective approaches to adults working with children’s play.

Children, mobile phones and outdoor play

This chapter examines the affordances (Gibson, 1979; Heft, 1988; Kyttä, 2003) offered by mobile phones for instigating and maintaining play in an adventure playground in south west England. It is influenced by new materialist theories and posthuman geographies that seek to acknowledge the vitality of material things and decentre the human as an organising force apart from ‘nature’. Children are positioned in an assemblage of other human and non-human actants, providing a perspective that offers the qualities of non-human actants (most notably mobile phones) up to more nuanced scrutiny. An ethnographic approach was used to observe and record children’s mobile phone use, and ten instances were recorded, treated as exemplars.