Permission to play: taking play seriously; making sport playful

玩耍是人类与生俱来的特质，对于理解世界、创造力、社交技能和积极情绪的发展至关重要。这是一种在儿童和年轻人中受到强烈鼓励的特质，但在当代西方社会的压力和技术中，这种特质越来越多地被挤出成年期。它通常被视为“幼稚”和“非生产性”的时间使用。然而，在某些领域-特别是创造性艺术和体育领域-玩耍以不同的形式得到庆祝，在这些领域，玩耍行为被视为提供积极的健康和福祉益处，作为社区凝聚力议程的一部分得到积极鼓励，并为创造力和创业思维提供空间。通过积极参与这些创造性艺术、文化和体育领域，并借鉴鼓励和庆祝玩耍的经验和做法，拟议的研究将寻求，首先是确认玩耍的属性，其次是确定新的研究问题，即如何在成年人中培养玩耍，以促进繁荣，恢复力，创造力，从而提高个人和社区的福祉。因此，它也将探讨如何游戏可以帮助重新连接人和社区，帮助克服冲突和不和谐，但减少孤立，压力和疏远。

Playfulness is an innate human trait crucial for making sense of the world, creativity, development of social skills and positive emotions. It is a trait which is strongly encouraged in children and young people but increasingly is being squeezed out in adulthood amidst the pressures and technologies of contemporary western society. It is often viewed as 'juvenile' and 'unproductive' use of time. Yet playfulness is celebrated in different forms within some arenas - particuarly the creative arts and sport - where the act of play is viewed as offering positive health and well-being benefits, actively encouraged as part of community cohesion agendas and providing spaces for creativity and entrepreneurial thinking. By engaging actively with these the arenas of creative arts & culture and sport, and drawing on the experiences and practices which encourage and celebrate playfulness, the proposed research will seek, firstly to characterise attributes of playfulness and, secondly to identify new research questions concerning ways in which it might be fostered in adults in order to promote flourishing, resilience, creativity and therefore enhance wellbeing for both individuals and communities. It will thus also explore how playfulness can help to reconnect people and communities, assisting to overcome conflict and dissonance but reducing isolation, stress, and alienation.