Variegated Nature of Play for Auckland Children

Abstract

Children's right to play - as enshrined in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) - is important for children's cognitive, social, and physical development and for their everyday well-being. Neighborhood affordances - formal and informal - provide more (or less) opportunities for informal active play and social interactions. However, urban intensification of neighborhoods in many Western cities, with the accompanying increase in traffic volumes, is impinging on children's ability to play freely. Active play is a major component of physical activity, which is important in the context of decreasing levels of physical activity and poorer health outcomes. Research shows children are more physically active when engaged in informal play than during formal play activities like sport. Thus children's access to places to play informally is an important public health issue as well as a UN-sanctioned right. This chapter explores the state of play for children, with a focus on the informal play of 253 children aged 9-12 years across nine suburban and inner-city neighborhoods in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city. The children's perspectives, presented here within a third place/space framework, were elicited using a range of qualitative participatory methods. The chapter concludes that, given the opportunity, the children in this research play anywhere and everywhere - in improvised places as well as in their backyards, school playgrounds, parks, and sports facilities.