Children need to play and the benefits of play are many and varied, but they are too often underestimated. This title offers a re-examination of children's play drawing together insights and experiences across fields such as education, sociology, philosophy and psychology to encourage an inter-disciplinary approach.

Introduction to the New Childhoods Series \ Acknowledgements \ Introduction \ Part 1 – Debates, Dilemmas and Challenges: The Background to Children’s Play \ 1. What is Play? \ Part 2 – Contemporary Issues \ 2. Play and Schools \ 3. Play and Other Institutional Settings \ 4. Play in Informal Settings \ 5. Play Deprivation \ Part 3 – Implications for Children’s Lives \ 6. Playwork \ 7. Rethinking Play \ Bibliography \ Index

Rethinking Children's Play is a masterful resource of latest research and application on a topic of ever growing importance given that fact that today so many children are having to swim upstream for play and often are at risk of drowning.The book is well-written, cogent, and very engaging with wonderful transcriptions of interviews with leading authorities and boxed features giving examples of research, reflections on research, and suggested activities.The volume promises to inform and to inspire those who read it and who are in a position to act on behalf of children and in response to their need and right to play in different settings including schools, prisons, and hospitals.The reader can consume content on these and a host of other topics to gain fresh insights about how to think about play in ways to enable heightened sensitivity to the perspectives of children and innovative means to impact play directly or indirectly.

A thought-provoking re-examination of children's play drawing together insights and experiences across fields such as education, sociology, philosophy and psychology to encourage an inter-disciplinary approach.

Is childhood changing? What effects are new ideas about childhood having on children's lives? How are children's voices and opinions affecting the services they use? Contemporary debates on the nature of childhood, attitudes towards children, the experiences of children and the emergence of a child rights agenda are resulting in a re-examination of theory, practice and research in many fields. New Childhoods offers a re-appraisal of the meaning of childhood - a series of texts that are succinct, accessible and engaging in introducing undergraduates to key areas of Childhood Studies, Education Studies and Sociology, and in disseminating new thinking, research, scholarship and practices. Books in this series will also be of interest to those who are preparing to work with children, such as teachers, early years practitioners, youth workers, health workers and psychologists. Key features include: boxed summaries of research which engage the reader in analysis; case studies to explore each issue in context; tasks to develop critical thinking; and pointers on further reading. Each volume promotes a child rights perspective, and provokes a re-examination of child-adult relationships in the contexts of family, community and state. Insights and experiences across fields such as sociology, philosophy and psychology are combined to encourage an inter-disciplinary approach.