Sciences du Jeu (Dec 2019)
Animer et jouer : rencontres et confusions
Abstract
This introductory text and more broadly this issue aims to identify the articulation between animation and play in order to shed light on it and question its stakes and limits. Starting from the common uses of the term animation, which reveal convergences between seemingly distant domains, scientific data redirect analyses to the sole field of leisure animation to show both the blur and the tensions. In addition to the debates on the contents and boundaries of the field, the articulation with leisure as a social form is proving to be the point of crystallization of a double valence between education and entertainment in which the question of play takes its source. After showing the emergence of playful practices with the focus of the early days of animation on children, we disclose all the consequences in relation to the educational orientation of French animation. The presentation thus focuses on the animative format characteristic of leisure activities in France to show its strong inspiration from the educational school form, leaving aside the playful form which would allow practices to be more in keeping with leisure. The proposed texts in the issue join these analyses of the links between animation and play but also between play and education, whether based on representations or practices, in extracurricular or more directly entertainment facilities, in France or in other countries.
