The Power of Place in Play

'There's nothing really fun about the park in winter!' - Christina Ergler is the first one to explore why `play' resonates differently across urban localities and seasons. She draws on Bourdieu's theory of practice and Gibson's affordance theory to show that determinants of seasonal outdoor play transcend modifiable barriers such as traffic and unsuitable play spaces as well as the inevitable issue of inclement weather. In contrast, seasonal play determinants are grounded in locally constituted beliefs about what is seasonally `appropriate' children's activity. To foster a healthier and more sustainable life for children, outdoor play needs to become convenient all-year-round in all locations.

Christina R. Ergler is a lecturer in Social Geography at The University of Otago, New Zealand. Her research interests are at the intersection of geography, sociology and public health and centre on interdisciplinary approaches to health and wellbeing, socio-spatial health inequalities, experiential dimension of health and wellbeing, and participatory research methods.