This short article reports on a presentation given at an International Journal of Playwork Practice seminar in 2018. It describes an approach to evaluating the work of an adventure playground using Participative Action Research and a critical cartographic method for producing documentation that shows the unique nature of playwork.

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In this article we playfully and seriously bring the subversive tendencies of adventure playgrounds to the exploration of outdoor learning, nature and urban play spaces which are the focus of this issue of Built Environment. The history of adventure playgrounds shows how they have always had to navigate the tension between supporting play for its own sake and meeting current policy agendas. We suggest that 'nature and learning' is one such agenda and off er both a theoretical challenge to current orthodoxies of thought and also a practical suggestion. Critical cartography is a spatial, relational and creative approach to documenting playwork that can offer a different articulation of the value of playwork, be the basis for playworkers' (rather than children's) learning, and also prompt a re-enchantment with children's play.

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