“Playing the Archive: From the Opies to the digital playground”
Publication date: 10 April, 2025
Fascinating book for those who have an academic interest or just an interest in children’s games. The book arises from the major study carried out by the Opies, in the 1950s and 1960s, of children’s street and playground games, stories, sayings, rhymes, etc collected from children all over the United Kingdom, leading to a more recent study by the authors gathering stories and games from today’s children and looking at how things change.
Published by UCL Press and available as an open access free pdf from the UCL Press site:
https://uclpress.co.uk/book/playing-the-archive/
“The book explores how the Opie Archive was made publicly available online by the project through digital images, innovative cataloguing and playful digital media interfaces, such as a red telephone kiosk at the Young V&A. Chapters analyse the ethnographic strands of the project, collecting evidence of new and old forms of play on today’s playgrounds using state-of-the-art digital methods. The book proposes new ways of thinking about changes and adaptations to play and games, theorising on the workings of interfaces, repertoires and archives. It also considers the Opies’ ways of working, landscapes of play over time, and intergenerational dialogue about play. The collection presents research evidence and theory which speak back to the often reductive public discourse around children’s play and digital media. It positions children as creative, agentive and engaged participants in their play cultures.”
– UCL Press
