How is play conceived and examined in planning research? Or is it discussed at all? Our brand new paper “Planning for Play? A Systematic Literature Review?” in the Journal of Planning Literature examines 3800 articles across 19 planning journals to uncover the extent to which planners and planning scholarship focuses on play.
The quick answer: not much. Only 126 articles related to play. And this emerging discourse was overwhelmingly focused on children and physical design of urban spaces in predominantly English-speaking nations.
The takeaway: lots of exciting work to be done!