Inventing Imaginary Worlds

How can parents, educators, business leaders and policy makers nurture creativity, prepare for inventiveness and stimulate innovation? One compelling answer, this book argues, lies in fostering the invention of imaginary worlds, a. k. a. worldplay. First emerging in middle childhood, this complex form of make-believe draws lifelong energy from the fruitful combustions of play, imagination and creativity. Inventing imaginary worlds develops the skills society needs for inventing the future.

List of Figures

Introduction
The Story of Worldplay

Acknowledgments

Part One: Discovering Worldplay Where It Grows
Chapter 1:
Hidden Worlds of Play: A Journey Through the Land of Kar

Chapter 2:
Searching for Paracosms: How One Man Found the Imaginary Worlds of Childhood

Chapter 3:
Memory Counts: MacArthur Fellows and College Students Recall Childhood Play

Part Two: Exploring the Gardens of Make-Believe

Chapter 4:
Pretense and Place: The Poetics of Play in Middle Childhood

Chapter 5:
Imaginary Countries and Gifted Play: First Investigations of 'Creative IQ'

Chapter 6:
A Learning Laboratory in Creative Practice: Plumbing the Plausible Imagination

Part Three: Grafting Worldplay to Adult Work

Chapter 7:
The Maturation of Creative Imagination: Robert Louis Stevenson as Mentor

Chapter 8:
Worldplay at Work: MacArthur Fellows Straddle a Creative Divide

Chapter 9:
The Worldplay Avocation-Vocation: Case Studies in Creative Polymathy

Part 4: Sowing the Seeds of Worldplay

Chapter 10:
Imaginary World Invention Goes to School: An Argument for Playful Learning
Chapter 11:
Worldplay the Computer Way: Children and Youth Reveal Their Lived Experience

Chapter 12:
The Creative Capital of Make-Believe: How to Support Children Playing at Their Best
Conclusion.
Wither the Worldplay Impulse?

Appendix. A Childhood Worldplay List

Endnotes

Bibliography