Presentation by Pat Kane to the Global Gathering on Early Childhood, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, 17 October 2013. For more contact Pat at http://www.theplayethic.com

1. The Play Ethic
forging a "good society"
via the power and
potential of play
Pat Kane
musician, writer, consultant
www.theplayethic.com
Thursday, 17 October 13

2. Play As A Public and Adult Value
Creativity, Economy & the Good Society
Play: The Foundation of Creativity
Building “Grounds of Play” in Education,
Public Space, Organisations, Policy
Playing in a Cold Climate
Thursday, 17 October 13

3. PLAY AS A PUBLIC AND ADULT VALUE
Thursday, 17 October 13

4. PLAY AND RETAIL
Thursday, 17 October 13
PLAY AS A PUBLIC & ADULT VALUE

5. PLAY AND RECREATION,
SELF-HELP
Thursday, 17 October 13
PLAY AS A PUBLIC & ADULT VALUE

6. PLAY & GAMBLING, PLAY &
ARTS
Thursday, 17 October 13
PLAY AS A PUBLIC & ADULT VALUE

7. ■ Best-selling actionadventure video game
in 24 hours
■ Best-selling video
game in 24 hours
■ Fastest
entertainment
property to gross $1
billion
■ Fastest video game to
gross $1 billion
■ Highest-grossing
video game in 24
hours
■ Highest revenue
generated by an
entertainment
product in 24 hours
■ Most viewed trailer for
an action-adventure
video game
PLAY & COMPUTER
GAMES
Thursday, 17 October 13
PLAY AS A PUBLIC & ADULT VALUE

8. CREATIVITY, ECONOMY & THE GOOD SOCIETY
Thursday, 17 October 13

9. TWO QUESTIONS HERE:
- HOW BIG IS THE “CREATIVE ECONOMY”?
- HOW IMPORTANT IS CREATIVITY TO AN
ECONOMY?
Thursday, 17 October 13

10. HOW BIG IS THE “CREATIVE
ECONOMY”?
NESTA report, April 2013
In the UK: It provides jobs for 2.5 million
people – more than in financial services,
advanced manufacturing or construction
This creative workforce grew four times
faster than the workforce as a whole in
the six years to 2010
And proved more resilient when the
wider labour market dipped violently in
2009.
Thursday, 17 October 13
“comprising creative industries in sectors
ranging from the Performing and Visual
Arts to Advertising and Software, as well
as creative professionals working
elsewhere in the economy”

11. HOW IMPORTANT IS CREATIVITY TO AN ECONOMY?
Tyler Cowen, Average is Over (2013)
“If you and your skills are a complement to the computer,
your wage and labor market prospects are likely to be
cheery. If your skills do not complement the computer, you
may want to address that mismatch. Ever more people
are starting to fall on one side of the divide or the other.
That's why average is over.”
Thursday, 17 October 13

12. HOW IMPORTANT IS CREATIVITY TO AN ECONOMY?
HUMAN CREATIVITY
COMPLEMENTS THE
COMPUTER
- WHY SOMETHING
SHOULD BE DONE
- HOW IT WILL MAKE US
FEEL
- WHO IT WILL BENEFIT/
DAMAGE
AND WHAT IS THE
FOUNDATION OF
CREATIVITY...?
Thursday, 17 October 13

13. PLAY: THE FOUNDATION OF CREATIVITY
Thursday, 17 October 13

14. PLAY: THE FOUNDATION OF CREATIVITY
Golden age of play/game scholarship
Thursday, 17 October 13

15. Takeaways in terms of play/creativity/
economy/society...
Play is not just an indicator of wellbeing but well-becoming. How deeply rooted in
human nature is the joy of curiosity?
“Playful play” is light-hearted, freely
chosen, exploratory, messy, open to
others
Creativity draws from playful play - but
innovation is different - that’s about
applying options, not generating them
We have a public need to establish the
enabling conditions of play and creativity
Thursday, 17 October 13

16. BUILDING “GROUNDS OF PLAY” IN EDUCATION,
PUBLIC SPACE, ORGANIZATIONS, POLICY
Thursday, 17 October 13

17. Maintaining and increasing investment in early
years education vital to sustaining “grounds of play”
Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish Lessons - longer
kindergarten/play learning, and then more selfdirected learning in formal school, one of bases of
world-beating OECD educational scores (wellpaid &
superqualified teachers the other!)
Thursday, 17 October 13

18. Aldo van Eyck’s post-war Amsterdam playgrounds
Plan for play
- Resist the mall!
- When procuring/planning public spaces/amenities, think of
the vital need for open, well-furnished space
- Not just for child’s play, but to provide autonomy and headspace for adults too.
- Think “real utopia” of policies: shorter working week, full
childcare, citizen’s income (Robert Skidelsky, NEF, B.I.)
Thursday, 17 October 13

19. Stay festive!
- A way for adults to stay playful & creative is to keep
thinking about the future of what they’re doing, and then
discuss that with others, at events and through networks
- Forecasting and futurology as the grown-up version of
“let’s pretend”...
Thursday, 17 October 13

20. PLAYING IN A COLD CLIMATE
Thursday, 17 October 13

21. Roy Foster,
“Macmansions,
Cellars and
Garrets: surveying
the new Ireland”,
Open Democracy,
6 August 2013
“The answers are not coming from the politicians, or from any other
sector of the shell-shocked Irish establishment. It seems likely that the
questions will be raised, and responses floated, from elsewhere, from
what Yeats called 'the cellars and garrets', where artists and
social radicals mingle on the margins of respectable life. Whether
the evident anger that fuels them will be transmuted into the
mainstream of Irish life, or find its own outlet, remains to be seen.”
Thursday, 17 October 13

22. THANK YOU!
Pat Kane
musician, writer, consultant
www.theplayethic.com
Thursday, 17 October 13