From Children to Red Hatters: Diverse Images and Issues of Play (Play & Culture Studies)

The ten chapters of this book examine play from a variety of perspectives and disciplines (philosophy, sociology, history, child development, animal behavior) and across almost the entire age range of human development (preschoolers through adults). In the first chapter, Gwen Gordon looks at the basic issue of trying to define the concept of play and offers a possibility that not only takes into consideration the activity of children but the activity of atoms and the universe as well. Thomas Henricks then relates the concept of play to the equally complex issue of time, suggesting that the act of playing may involve not only the present but also the past and future.