Playwork: theory and practice -- Contents -- List of contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: childhood and play -- Part 1: The roots of play and playwork -- 1 The essence of play -- 2 Making play work: the fundamental role of play in the development of social relationship skills -- 3 Towards playwork: an historical introduction to children's out-of-school play organizations in London (1860-1940) -- Part 2: Theories of playwork -- 4 Compound flexibility: the role of playwork in child development -- 5 Play deprivation, play bias and playwork practice -- 6 Towards a psycholudic definition of playwork -- Part 3: Putting theory into practice: the reflective practitioner -- 7 Professional playwork practice -- 8 Adventure playgrounds in the twenty-first century -- 9 Establishing play in a local authority -- 10 It's not what you know, but who you know! -- 11 Playwork in adversity: working with abandoned children in Romania -- 12 Playwork as reflective practice -- Bibliography -- Index.