Play à la mode

How do we imagine play? Are there as if models or metaphors that underlie and influence our understanding of play and, if so, how do they affect the questions that we ask about this phenomenon? The goal of my talk is to call attention to the model of play that views it as a mode or disposition that can be adopted toward any activity and not, itself, a separate category of behavior. This is not a new argument but I suggest that it is one that needs to be examined in more detail. Central to this approach is the need to understand how play is produced, interpreted and also used in specific situations by all participants: players and researchers. This means recognizing that the goals of researchers and the goals of players may differ in several important ways. I explore this view in more detail by turning to three TAASP/TASP Keynote addresses: Gregory Bateson (1977), Norman Denzin (1980) and June Factor (2006). I believe that the perspectives offered by these scholars are important because they complicate our understanding of what play is while also suggesting new ways to examine the way that play is played.