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

Make/Unmake (Open Book Publishers, 2026) is an engaging and original exploration of children’s play as a powerful cultural force. Drawing on ethnographic research and travel writing, Anna Beresin journeys to the Midlands region of England to observe three remarkable play-based programs: the Maker{Futures} Mobile Makerspace, the Pitsmoor Adventure Playground, and the GLUE Collective. She captures the voices of playworkers, teachers, and artists and documents the ingenuity of children turning objects into tools of imagination and change.

At a moment when children’s opportunities for material play are shrinking, this book confronts urgent questions: Who gets to play? Who is left out? The work resonates with UNICEF’s recent call to address inequality, climate pressures, and technological shifts shaping children’s lives today. By centring under-resourced communities, gender equity, and cultural representation, this volume reframes play as both a process of making and unmaking the world—an act of resilience, creativity, and collective transformation.

Anna Beresin, PhD is a Professor Emerita of psychology and folklore at the former University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. Her co-edited volume (with Julia Bishop), Play in a Covid Frame: Everyday Pandemic Creativity in a Time of Isolation (Open Book Publishers, 2023), won the 2024 Iona and Peter Opie Prize awarded by the Children’s Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society.

Make/Unmake is freely available to read and download in both PDF and HTML formats.