Playing the Archive

Playing the Archive: From the Opies to the digital playground reflects on a major study inspired by the work of citizen scholar folklorists Iona and Peter Opie. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Opies built a vast collection of children’s street and playground games, stories, sayings, rhymes, beliefs and habits as told to them by children all over Britain. These accounts are now held in the Bodleian Libraries and were the focus and inspiration for the new study. New stories and games were gathered from today’s children, and comparisons drawn between play experiences at these two different points in time.

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.

Praise for Playing the Archive

‘This book flies in the face of the narrative of decline which, in this field, states that children don’t play any more. Only with patient and innovative research can we adults get near to what children are doing now, and compare it with the research and memories of the past. Call it anthropology, sociology, folklore or ethnography if you will, this book does all of this.’
Michael Rosen, Goldsmiths, University of London

‘*Knock knock. Who’s there? Opie. Opie who? Opie gives me my book back. Fans of children’s play, children’s folklore history, and the scholarly legacy of Iona and Peter Opie need this book in their library. I really do want my book back.’
*Anna Beresin, formerly of University of the Arts, Philadelphia