(At)tending to rhizomes: how researching neighbourhood play with children can affect and be affected by policy and practice in transcalar ways in the context of the Welsh Government’s Play Sufficiency Duty

(A)tendiendo los rizomas: cómo la investigación de los juegos de barrio con los niños y niñas puede afectar y verse afectada por las políticas y prácticas de manera transcalar en el contexto del programa ‘Play Sufficiency Duty’ del gobierno de Gales

(A)tendendo aos rizomas: como a pesquisa de brincadeiras de bairro com crianças pode afetar e ser afetada por políticas e práticas de maneira transcalar no contexto do programa governamental ‘Play Sufficiency Duty’ do País de Gales

Abstract:

The authors draw on their experiences of researching the Welsh Government’s Play Sufficiency Duty to discuss how the conditions for the Duty itself, its implementation and for children to play out in their neighbourhoods develop in rhizomatic ways that can be both planned and unexpected. Looking at examples of neighbourhood research with children, they suggest four dimensions of children’s participation (as the capacity to affect and be affected): first, seeing playing itself as a mode of participation in the production of public space; second, through participation in research and influencing planning and design at a hyperlocal level; third, through the ways such research affects researchers and others; and fourth, how the stories that emerge from the research spread in rhizomatic ways that affect policy and practice at multiple intra-related scales.

Keywords:
Children’s play; Public space; Participation; Rhizomes