This book provides new theoretical insights to our understanding of play as a cultural activity. All chapters address play and playful activities from a cultural-historical theoretical approach by re-addressing central claims and concepts in the theory and providing new models and understandings of the phenomenon of play within the framework of cultural historical theory. Empirical studies cover a wide range of institutional settings: preschool, school, home, leisure time, and in various social relations (with peers, professionals and parents) in different parts of the world (Europe, Australia, South America and North America). Common to all chapters is a goal of throwing new light on the phenomenon of playing within a theoretical framework of cultural-historical theory. Play as a cultural, collective, social, personal, pedagogical and contextual activity is addressed with reference to central concepts in relation to development and learning. Concepts and phenomena related to ZPD, the imaginary situation, rules, language play, collective imagining, spheres of realities of play, virtual realities, social identity and pedagogical environments are presented and discussed in order to bring the cultural-historical theoretical approach into play with contemporary historical issues. Essential as a must read to any scholar and student engaged with understanding play in relation to human development, cultural historical theory and early childhood education.

Preface.- 1. Introduction: Childrens Play and Development;Ivy Schousboe and Ditte Winther-Lindqvist.- 2. The Structure of Fantasy Play and its Implications for Good and Evil Games;Ivy Schousboe.- 3. Playing with Social Identities;Ditte Winther-Lindqvist.- 4. Pedagogical Perspectives on Play;Daniela Cecchin.- 5. Collective Imagining in Play;Marilyn Fleer.- 6. Las Divinas. Play and Emotions in a Mexican Telenovela Performance;Gloria Quiñones.- 7. A Cultural-Historical Study of Childrens Collective Imagination in Play: A Preschoolers Bilingual Heritage Language Development;Liang Li.- 8. Language Play: The Development of Linguistic Consciousness and Creative Speech in Early Childhood Education;Niklas Pramling and Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson.-  9. Play to Learn, Learn to Play Boundary Crossing Within Zones of Proximal Development;Lars Rossen.- 10. Online Adolescence. Real Life Development in the Virtual World of Warcraft;Halfdan Fryd Koot andHernik Garde.- 11. Playing in Online Chat Communities;Morten Jack.- 12. The Persistence of Play and What-If Thinking;Ivy Schousboe.- 13. Cultural and Historical Influences on Conceptions and Uses of Play;Ivy Schousboe.- 14. An Activity Theory View on the Development of Playing;Bert van Oers.- 15. Play, but not Simply Play the Anthropology of Play;Benny Karpatschof.