Abstract
Risk is big business. It has assumed almost universal acceptance as an ever-present reality of life, something out there waiting to cause harm (most notably to political, economic and health systems). It commands vast resources to develop preventative measures that are the preserve of experts issuing often contradictory advice and warnings. Children’s play is caught up in this account. No longer something that children just do, it is subject to adult scrutiny that simultaneously and paradoxically attempts to manage risk and promote “risk-taking” for its perceived instrumental benefits, primarily the development of risk assessing skills. Adults thus guide children’s play, rendering children passive and needy recipients of expertise. This article takes a broader perspective to consider how this contemporary understanding of risk plays out in material discursive practices in relation to childhood, play, health and wellbeing. It then draws on conceptual tools of relationality, materiality and performativity to reconfigure playing as an emergent co-production of entangled bodies, affects, objects, space and histories in ways that make life better for the time of playing. Such moments produce health-affirming potential as an intra-dependent phenomenon rather than an individual achievement. Finally, it considers implications for “health promotion” and health enabling environments.
Highlights
One summer afternoon, some children had been investigating around the edges
The development of a risk-benefit approach seeks to adopt a balanced attitude, in UK: those responsible for play provision can develop an approach to risk management that takes into account the benefits the provision offers to children and young people as well as the risks. It aims to help providers achieve two objectives that are fundamental in any play provision: to offer children and young people challenging, exciting, engaging play opportunities, while ensuring that they are not exposed to unacceptable risk of harm [45]
While this is seen as countering the excessive risk-aversion seen to permeate the institutions of childhood, it is still couched in the language of technical risk management processes, placing responsibility on adults to control what is perceived to be irrational behavior
Summary
Some children had been investigating around the edges. One boy emerged with the red plastic slide from the kit house that is scattered around. The group of 4–5 boys involved were all very competent climbers so I decided to watch from a distance what happened They pushed the slide out over the end of the structure above the sand and two of them sat on the slide, stopping it from falling over the edge with their weight. The endeavor here is to turn conventional wisdom on its head in pretty much the same fashion as children do when playing In performing this task, the intention is not merely to critique and deconstruct, but to reconfigure, by drawing on a different set of conceptual tools and approaches from those traditionally employed in the study of play and by doing so attempt to forge some new connections. The article: considers contemporary perspectives on risk and how they play out in material discursive practices in relation to childhood; explores the entanglement of play, risk and health; introduces another perspective on playing; and considers implications for “health promotion” and health enabling environments
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
