This book explores the complex and multi-layered relationships between democracy and play, presenting important new theoretical and empirical research. It builds new paradigmatic bridges between philosophical enquiry and fields of application across the arts, political activism, children's play, education and political science.

Alice Koubová is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy at the Czech Academy of Sciences, and an Associate Professor and the Vice-Dean for Research at the Theatre Faculty, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Czech Republic. Her main research interests range from performance philosophy to relational ethics and policies in art. She combines her theoretical research with dramaturgical practice and cooperation with public institutions.

Petr Urban is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy at the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic. His work focuses on moral and political theory of care, public ethics and phenomenological philosophy. He led a project on ethical culture in the Czech civil service and has been engaged in collaboration with governmental institutions including revising related policy documents in the Czech Republic.

Wendy Russell is an independent researcher into children's play and playwork and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Gloucestershire, UK. Her research focuses on supporting children's right to play, particularly in terms of the politics of space, policy and ethics. She is a co-founder of the biennial international Philosophy at Play conferences and on the editorial board of the International Journal of Play.

Malcolm MacLean is a settler scholar and interdisciplinary historian whose research focuses on the political, cultural and social experience and identities associated with sport and play. His work focuses on developing a "subaltern view", emphasizing ordinary experiences of cultural and social life, with an emphasis on power, resistance, struggle and the identities related to those experiences. He is a co-founder of the biennial Philosophy at Play conferences. He maintains academic affiliations at The University of Queensland, Australia, De Montfort University, UK, and the University of Gibraltar.

1. How Play Matters for Democracy, Part I: Play, Normativity and Contesting Democracy, 2. Theatre and its Discontents, 3. Democracy, Power and Powerlessness of Art, 4. Can Role-Playing be Wrong? An Analysis of the Normativity of Play from the Perspective of the Enactive Cognitive Science, Part II: Urban Spaces and Playful Activism, 5. On Unforeseen Constellations and Constant Flux: Dialectical Activism and Metamorphoses, 6. The City as Spielraum: Play, Aesthetic Experience and Politics in Urban Space, 7. Can I Join In? Playful Performance and Alternative Political Realities, 8. Velvet Carnival: Play and Embodied Reflexivity, Part III: Playful Artistic Performance as Resistance to Dominant Power, 9. The Gift of Silence: Towards an Anthropology of Jazz Improvisation as Neuro-Resistance, 10. ¡Viva el Juego! Play in Latin American Performance Art, 11. Life in Cinematic Bodies at Play: The Example of Daisies (1966), Part IV: Paradoxes of Play and Democracy in Education, 12. Schooling the New Sensibility: Communal Philosophical Dialogue, Play, and Social Democracy, 13. Play and the Pedagogical Apparatus, 14. Child's Play: Inadvertent Tactical Resistance and Unofficial Power, 15. Playful Democracy, Democratic Playfulness and Philosophical Dialogue(s): Reflections from Two Conference Ethnographers