Altered States of Academia

Tag: children

  • Silent Swing

    Claire Birkenshaw “No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves” (Carson, [1962] 2002, p.13). Writing recently in the Guardian, freelance reporter Harriet Grant (2024, n.p.) advances the notion that a “war on play” has been enacted across the UK in which…

  • Contemporary Childhood: Secured by Design

    Birkenshaw, C. (2024) Beckett Park: Climbing Frame [Photograph]. Leeds. © Claire Birkenshaw. Claire Birkenshaw “We [have built] playgrounds that are so monumentally boring that any self- respecting child will go and play somewhere else” (Gill, 2024, quoted in Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, 2024, p.7). Like the attending Levelling Up, Housing and Committee MPs,…