List of figures List of tables List of contributors Acknowledgements 1 Introduction Seth Giddings 2 The state of play: an extended review of play theory Hannah Field and Ben Highmore Part I: Spaces 3 Miniaturization and 'adulteration': from H. G. Wells to Mike Kelley via psychoanalysis David Hopkins 4 The curious place of the child in the city: the shifting politics of play in three playground objects Jon Winder 5 Children first: Kuwait's Kindergarten Community Units Wadha Almutawa 6 The apparatus of postdigital play: playgrounds, games and building blocks Seth Giddings, Sara Grimes and Darshana Jayemanne Part II: Things 7 Playful deception: how children's magazines turned youth into magicians between 1850 and 1950 Eva Van de Wiele 8 Gaming life from 1790 to the 2000s: moving pieces through fraught pasts into imagined futures Megan A. Norcia 9 Constructive play, avant-garde art and the utopian imagination in Latin America Jordana Blejmar and Erika Teichert 10 In defence of the plastic toy Meredith A. Bak 11 Digitized fidget toys and visual tactility in children's sensory play Bjørn Nansen, Jessica Balanzategui and Luella Nansen Part III: Conversations 12 Grounds for play: a conversation about playgrounds Wendy Hoddinott 13 Playing in the museum: the making of Young V&A Katy Canales and Holly Tatham Index.