Make/Unmake: Play at the Centre of Culture Change by Anna Beresin

In Make/Unmake: Play at the Centre of Culture Change, author Anna Beresin Ph.D. argues that play should be at the center of educational and cultural life, rather than cast aside as a luxury or secondary skill. Through her ethnographic research of three different play-based programs in the Midlands region of England, Beresin explores how children create and reshape culture through play.

Beresin traveled to the Midlands region of England to observe three play-based programs: the Maker{Futures} Mobile Makerspace, the Pitsmoor Adventure Playground, and the GLUE Collective. Using these three programs as examples, Beresin shows how play helps children experiment, solve problems, build community, and imagine alternatives to existing social structures. How does play give children the skills to do all of this? Creative and imaginative play gives children the skills to “make” and “unmake,” which translates to culture creation as constructing new ideas and dismantling old and harmful assumptions or systems. Through this thesis, Beresin reframes play as both a process of making and unmaking the world.

Beresin also incorporates conversations and perspectives from playworkers, teachers, and artists. She documents the ingenuity of children turning objects into tools of imagination and change, and continuously shows why it is so crucial for play to be seen as a necessary aspect of childhood, rather than a reward for completing other educational endeavors. In his review of Make/Unmake, Professor Frazer Brown of Leeds Beckett University put it perfectly: “For children’s creativity to reach its full potential, it is essential for them to be afforded the opportunity to explore, experiment, destroy, and start again – all under their own steam, with a minimum of adult intervention.”

As a Professor Emerita of Psychology and Folklore at the University of the Arts, Beresin has fully immersed herself in the importance of playing and just how impactful play is not just on a child’s development, but on the formation of culture. Beresin holds two PhDs, one in Psychology of Education and another in Folklore, both from the University of Pennsylvania, and also co-edits the International Journal of Play. Other books she’s authored include Play in a Covid Frame: Everyday Pandemic Creativity in a Time of Isolation and Recess Battles: Playing, Fighting, and Storytelling, both of which earned the Opie Prize in Children’s Folklore from the American Folklore Society. Beresin was also a Fulbright Scholar, which she dedicated to researching and writing this book.