Playing

In the book Playing in Industrial Ruins: Interrogating Teleological Understandings of Play in Spaces of Material Alterity and Low Surveillance, Edensor and three other authors argue that “an attentiveness to playfulness in industrial ruins offers an opportunity to think about the role of ‘wild’ spaces within the contemporary city, and the potential ‘wildness’ present in more managed urban spaces which might offer possibilities for playful transformation” (Edensor 77). This essentially means that “wild spaces within the contemporary city” help children to attempt new things that they never thought of before. In this perspective, Free Rein’s experience can be example of one of the “wild spaces,” because when she was growing up, in her neighbor, she did not have other girls in her age spectrum, so she should play with boys. Since majority of her group was boys, it was very hard for her to adjust in that group. However, she adjusted to that group and became really good friends with each other. If she had other girls to play with, she might not have chance to play with other boys, so in Edensor’s perspective, Free Rein’s environment is the space where provides “possibilities for playful transformation.” In Free Rein’s article, she says that “[she] played all their games, and they actually treated me as one of their own” (“Play”). Also, “[she] could barely remember that [she] was female” (“Play”). This tells us that she had an unique experience that not all girls can go through, and because of her unique experience, she could have other types of playing.

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Tim Edensor, Bethan Evans, Julian Holloway, Steve Millington and Jon Binnie. Playing in Industrial Ruins: Interrogating Teleological Understandings of Play in Spaces of Material Alterity and Low Surveillance. Urban Wildscapes. Ed. Anna Jorgensen and Richard Keenan. New York: Routledge, 2011. 65-79.
Free Rein. “Play.” 09-20-2016. Accessed 09-22-2016.