Scholarly snapshots: the importance of child play as a human right

protect those power games?’ In order to explore these questions, the book is structured in four parts, the first of which addresses the philosophy of play and democracy in relationship to normativity. Part Two comprises chapters concerning playful activism and democracy embodied in urban spaces. The third part features analyses of art and its power to resist political and normative dominance, whilst the final section discusses paradoxes of play and democracy in education. In taking such an eclectic approach to the exploration of play and democracy, play scholars are treated to an exposition on their subject of enquiry that encourages considerations of play that fulfil the editors’ intention of pushing at the limits of debate in play studies. In parts, this requires the setting aside of some received wisdoms in respect of what constitutes play. In others, one might be moved to question whether, across the piece, democracy, in all its contested glory, is actually the issue at stake. Ruminations on these subjects, however, are no doubt what the book’s editors and contributors have sought to inspire. Whilst featuring accessible chapters from practitioners who bring into focus the relationship between play and power, using apt and enlightening analogies, in its entirety Play and Democracy – philosophical perspectives, is not for the fainthearted. To fully digest a text that takes as its central subjects two such inherently ambiguous and amorphous concepts, one might be inclined to consult the associated literature for guidance and instruction. The opening of novel avenues of enquiry and the broadening of discussion is exactly what such a book should set out to do, though. There is no doubt that Play and Democracy – philosophical perspectives, presents play in its many manifestations as a nourishing force for good in a political world tilting rightwards on its axis. And in this sense it is hopeful, encouraging and illuminating of one of humankind’s greatest attributes: its irrepressible playfulness. This, however, is shot through with a cautious wisdom which reminds us that play is not the preserve of the socially conscious. Play can distract, legitimise, disguise, and transform. And this reviewer wouldn’t be the first to suggest that these are outcomes taken straight from the populists’ playbook.