Permission to play: taking play seriously; making sport playful

嬉戏是人类与生俱来的特质，对理解世界、创造力、发展社交技能和积极情绪至关重要。这一特征在儿童和年轻人中受到强烈鼓励，但在成年后，在当代西方社会的压力和技术中，越来越多地被排挤出去。它经常被认为是对时间的“幼稚”和“无效率”的利用。然而，在一些竞技场--特别是创意艺术和体育--玩耍被以不同的形式庆祝，其中玩耍行为被视为提供积极的健康和福祉益处，被积极鼓励作为社区凝聚力议程的一部分，并为创造力和创业思维提供空间。通过积极参与创意艺术、文化和体育的舞台，并利用鼓励和庆祝玩耍的经验和做法，拟议的研究将寻求，首先是确定玩耍的特征，其次是确定关于如何在成年人中培养玩耍的新的研究问题，以促进繁荣、韧性和创造力，从而提高个人和社区的福祉。因此，它还将探索玩耍如何帮助人们和社区重新建立联系，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.