Copyright
Beresin, Anna;Published On
2023-06-01Page Range
pp. 167–190Language
- English
Print Length
24 pagesKeywords
- Philadelphia
- public school communities
- fieldwork
- middle-class
- white area
- mixed ethnicity neighborhood
- working-class
- minority community
- state-of-the-art playgrounds
- built environment
- playgrounds
- interviews
- pandemic
- play
- socialization
- Covid as frame
- Covid as theme
- children's play
- children's art
- world building
- folk practice
8. ‘This Is the Ambulance, This Truck’
Covid as Frame, Theme and Provocation in Philadelphia, USA
- Anna Beresin (author)
Chapter of: Play in a Covid Frame: Everyday Pandemic Creativity in a Time of Isolation(pp. 167–190)
In this chapter, the author presents fieldwork from three different public school communities in Philadelphia, one in a middle-class, mostly white area in the middle of the city, one in a middle-class mixed ethnicity neighbourhood with access to green space, and one in a working-class minority community. The first two schools have state-of-the-art built environment playgrounds, while the third has no playground outside at all. Fifty parents participated in interviews about life during the pandemic. The discussions addressed play and socialization, Covid as frame and Covid as theme in children’s play. Children’s art highlights world building as a folk practice.
Contributors
Anna Beresin
(author)professor of psychology and folklore at University of the Arts
Anna Beresin, PhD, serves as professor of psychology and folklore at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She co-edits the International Journal of Play and studies children’s folklore, primate physical play, language play and the connections between play, culture and art. Her books include The Character of Play (2019), The Art of Play: Recess and the Practice of Invention (2014), and Recess Battles: Playing, Fighting, and Storytelling (2010). She co-authored Group Motion in Practice: Collective Creation through Dance Movement Improvisation with Brigitta Herrmann, Manfred Fischbeck, and Elia Sinaico (2018). Visit her at www.annaberesin.com.