Play Research Group: beginnings

Our first play research group meeting on intersecting and overlapping topics relevant to child well-being was full of informal discussion and brainstorming about the scope of the play research group, possible formats, and what everyone was hoping to get out of it. A list of topics of interest included:

• Child-friendliness, human rights, education, rights of the child, child health, physical activity, child well-being, access, environment, design, autonomy, independence, social capital, participation, policy, law, social inclusion, play, right to play, equitable access to public space

Although we felt that the group focus was much more broad than play, the topic of play is at the intersection of many of these topics. We discussed coming up with a catchy name for the group that captures the scope of our interests and put out an open call for suggestions!

One of the strengths of the journal club is it’s multidisciplinarity. Journal club members come from many different backgrounds including, child development, human kinetics, child health, epidemiology, social work and policy, education, urban design and more. This opens up great potential for exposure to new materials, new bodies of research and synergy among various projects. Sharing and discussion will be a major benefit, but could also pose some challenges as assumptions, theoretical frameworks, philosophical paradigms and language may not be common across disciplines. However, this will provide opportunities to practice communicating to a diverse academic group and becoming familiar with relevant research outside our fields.

Summary submitted by Emily 

Play Research Group Membership

Anyone interested in joining the study group, is welcome to send an expression of interest to Emily at [email protected]. Membership is open to grad students and academics interested in expanding and exploring our understandings of play in a cross-disciplinary study group.

Present June 26, 2019: Nagin, Michelle, Megan and Emily

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