Playgrounds are rich sites of historically-situated discourses that demand from us to, in the Latourian (2004) sense, treat them as a matter of concern. Within their boundaries, children “are seen to be in place” (Shillington & Murnaghan, 2016, p. 41) and are obligated to happiness (Saltmarsh & Lee, 2021). For those wishing to engage in reconceptualizing work, the technology of playgrounds that produces particular childhoods must be critiqued. This series of paper collages returns to playgrounds as campaign sites of Christian-minded philanthropists of the Playground Movement, and the battle grounds of developmentalists for the bodies and minds of children as future citizens. I consider playgrounds as sites of colonialism, land dispossession, extractivism, social injustices, war, developmentalism, neoliberalism, and capitalism; and as spaces where climate crisis envelops children’s play directly into the troubles of the 21st century and the uncertain future.
TZG Portfolio 