Presentation made to Aberdeenshire playworkers on 30th October, 2010, by Pat Kane from http://www.theplayethic.com

1. ADVOCATING
PLAY: A
STRATEGY
FOR PLAY-
WORKERS
PAT KANE
Presentation to
Aberdeenshire
Playworkers, 30th
October, 2010
WWW.THEPLAYETHIC.COM

2. We began with
a “Saturday
morning cinema
YouTube club”,
themed on the
idea that play is
the most
natural, and
strangest thing
that humans do
WWW.THEPLAYETHIC.COM

3. www.stuartbrown.com
NATURALNESS OF HUMAN PLAY:
STUART BROWN ON THE PLAY-BOW
(CLICK ON NEXT SLIDE FOR YOUTUBE VIDEO)
The extraordinary space to get a distance from instinct and
evolutionary programming that play opens up

4. NATURALNESS OF HUMAN PLAY:
“DOG AND CAT PLAY TOGETHER”
(CLICK ON NEXT SLIDE FOR YOUTUBE VIDEO)
The play space for animals in a thoroughly humanised
environment. We're getting closer to human culture – and how play
and games can help complex organisms figure out to live with
each other, to cope with the strengths and weaknesses of other in
society. Mark Bekoff claims that ethics/morality begins here, in the
play of animals (click for children's book & academic paper)

5. NATURALNESS OF HUMAN PLAY:
“CHARLIE BIT ME!!”
(CLICK ON NEXT SLIDE FOR YOUTUBE VIDEO)
Here we are in the next step towards learning about so many
elements of human co-existence through a “play-moment' –
figuring out the boundaries of the body, registering the feelings
(pain!) of others, developing a sense of empathy by test and
experiment. All in a safe space that monitored but not controlled.
See Gregory Bateson on the bite that's not a bite in animal play

6. NATURALNESS OF HUMAN PLAY:
ETHAN THE LAUGHING BABY
(CLICK ON NEXT SLIDE FOR YOUTUBE VIDEO)
So much richness here... Ethan is experiencing the joy of being able
to manipulate the physical world, exerting his mastery and skill over it,
with a committed and active parent. But in the course of this Ethan
falls over on his head four times – the first time alarmingly, the second
time less so, third time less so again...& on the fourth time he can
maintain his balance. Everything is here about the developmental
importance of risk & rough'n'tumble in play.

7. NATURALNESS OF HUMAN PLAY:
BOBBY MCFERRIN ON SCALES
(CLICK ON NEXT SLIDE FOR YOUTUBE VIDEO)
How do we begin to appreciate the developmental energies
of play in adults? Musician Bobby McFerrin, in a room full of
experts at a neuroscience conference, shows brilliantly how
deeply rooted play (in this instance musical play) is in the
human brain. The collective joy is tangible... and collective
joy is undoubtedly an element of adult play (see Ehrenreich)

8. STRANGENESS OF HUMAN PLAY:
X-BOX AD, 2002, 'OPERATING TABLE'
(CLICK ON NEXT SLIDE FOR YOUTUBE VIDEO)
The X-Box advert I consulted to, from 2002, banned after six
weeks from national television... The demographic is mostly men
over 35: for them, a life of play is infinitely preferable to inevitable
ageing through a concrete-blocked, over-administered Britain. An
example of play as it meets adulthood, language, full cognition,
politics, existential dread... (see The Play Ethic)

9. STRANGENESS OF HUMAN PLAY:
OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES: THE POPE
(CLICK ON NEXT SLIDE FOR YOUTUBE VIDEO)
Humour and wit can be the most adult form of human play – and
on OldJewsTellingJokes.com, the humour can be laughter in the
dark, gallows humour: the 'making light' of a terrible reality or
memory, so that it can be negotiated and lived with. See Brian
Sutton-Smith on frivolous play as “adaptive potentiation”

10. STRANGENESS OF HUMAN PLAY:
IBM LINUX AD
(CLICK ON NEXT SLIDE FOR YOUTUBE VIDEO)
Another example of adult play – the hackers who built the Linux
operating system, out of enthusiasm and the joy of construction
(remember Ethan the baby? Clearly a hacker to come...). Here the
Linux community is personified as a genius boy, able to absorb and
use the very best of human capacities. IBM decided that an “open
source” software community was the best basis by which to compete
with their rivals. Adult play with the most hardnosed of consequences.

11. What's the point of this
little Saturday morning
YouTube club for
playworkers?
So you can remember that
play is elemental to human
development, for adult and
child – a way of adapting to
the complex challenges of
living socially with others,
whose “potentiations”
include light and dark,
security and risk, innocence
and experience. So you can
appreciate the profundity of
your domain & expertise

12. My definition
of play:
“play is
taking reality
lightly”
(distilled from Plato,
Schiller, Sartre, Huizinga,
Erikson, Winnicott,
Baudrillard, many
others…)

13. - apparently purposeless (done for its own
sake)
- voluntary
- inherent attraction
- freedom from time
- diminished consciousness of self (flow)
- improvisational potential (open to chance -
as a result we stumble upon new ways of
being)
- continuation desire (the infinite game. And
addiction?)
Stuart Brown’s definition in “Play” (2009)

14. Two big stories about the
power and potential of play in
our society and culture
Play is the most natural
thing we do
Play is the strangest thing
we do

15. Play is the most natural thing
we do (1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=XKQxpJRHGec

16. Play is the most natural thing
we do (2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=cXXm696UbKY

17. Play is the most natural thing
we do…
… because play is core to our
development as social, cognitive and
emotional beings
…it’s a zone where we test out
potential scenarios for living, without
cost, without fear/with joy, because
we want to

18. Play’s the most natural thing we do
- sports and the arts
- creativity in
organisations
- family & communal
festivity
- irony, jokes, flirtation
- daydreaming,
visualisation
..we
constantly
“take reality
lightly” - all
day, every
day

19. …Play as way of realising our true nature as healthy,
sociable, capable human beings
From “Building the curriculum - active learning”

20. Another story about play….
Play is the strangest thing we do
When we think
about who is a
“player” (other
than sports)…
Not very
positive
connotations…
For masculinity,
politics or
business…

21. Another story about play….
Play is the strangest thing we do
Information and bio-technology - making our
fantasies into realities… Will they be good
fantasies? Who shapes the soul of the player?

22. Do we need a
“play ethic?”
Only one story
about play - like
sleep or nutrition, it
functions to
generate human
adaptability through
potentialising…
what happens when
we have tools to
make those
potentials real?

23. ‘Active learning’ should be
about shaping and forging
that play ethic
But you must be aware of the
complex, ambiguous nature of play…

24. ‘rough-and-
tumble-play’
(boys), ‘mean
girls’ (girls),
bullying
how to distinguish between…
- the necessary turbulence and negotiation and
social learning of rough play
- and hurtful dominance
The challenge of play to active learning

25. A school - or
a ‘shkole’?
The challenge of play to active learning
Shkole did not just
mean “having time”,
but also a certain
relation to time: a
person living an
academic life could
organise one’s time
oneself - the person
could combine work
and leisure the way
they wanted ---
Pekka Himanen

26. The challenge of play to active learning
It’s not so
idealistic
…take
‘s
20% rule
A ‘ground of
play’ at the
heart of their
organisation…
Shouldn’t we
prepare kids
for this future?
Play for all stages of learning, not just
“early” learning… why should it stop?

27. *** Be advocates of
play
-- to other care
professionals
-- to clients
(parents)
-- among
yourselves

28. *** tools of advocacy
- be able to convey the health, learning
and civic benefits of early-years play
from the latest research and findings
Neuropsychological/neurophysiological
(Melvin Konner, Stuart Brown)
Learning: LTS, Cambridge Group
Civic: Richard Sennett, Pat Kane

29. *** tools of advocacy
-- be able to convey the core
truth of your profession
/occupation to other
stakeholders (care
professionals, parents, media)
- what I learned from social
work - "our domain is
relationships" – your domain is
the "ground of play"

30. *** tools of advocacy
-- be literate and self-aware of
your own play capacities
- what play occurs in your
life?
- what are the balances of
forms of play that you think
are healthy?

31. *** tools of advocacy
-- use social media to conduct a
"public conversation" about playwork
- share examples of good practice,
use blogs to keep people informed
about stuff you find in the media
- displays your occupation well to
the wider society
[[who's the blogger in the office???]]

32. *** thoughts
for the break
- If someone asked you at a party, “so
you're a playworker – what's all that
about?”, what's the single definitive
story you would tell?
- What are the three things you can say
you know & understand about play?
- Write this on a sheet of paper – then
make an aeroplane out of it...

33. ADVOCATING
PLAY: A
STRATEGY
FOR PLAY-
WORKERS
PAT KANE
playethical@gmail.com
Twitter:
@theplayethic.com
Website:
www.theplayethic.com