Exploring IQDA

 
IQDA is an important resource for preserving and understanding the contemporary social history of Ireland. Every few months, on this page, we illustrate how the social science data we archive sheds light on a particular theme, and we also invite you to share your own experiences relating to the topic through our blog. 
 
Current topic:
 
Childhood play might not seem like a very serious topic for a social science archive, but researchers have increasingly emphasized how children actively contribute to changing patterns of social life. Play is one of the ways in which children interpret their place in society, create their own peer cultures and participate in social change. 
Datasets currently being archived at IQDA include insights on: 
 
MEMORIES OF TOYS AND POPULAR GAMES 
Older respondents in the ‘Life Histories and Social Change’ project drew contrasts between the simple toys and games of the recent past, and contemporary children’s play:

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHANGING TIME AND SPACE FOR PLAY 
During the 1930s and forties, rural children had little time to play before or after school, because of the many jobs they had to do around the farm. But they still found ways to create their own childhood worlds: 

 
THE CELTIC TIGER
During the ‘Celtic Tiger,’ children living in the new suburbs around Dublin had more time to play, but less space:

Schoolchild’s essay from the ‘New Urban Living’ project.

 
PLAY AND SOCIAL DIVISIONS
The social divisions that mark adult society can restrict children’s play, but children also find ways to interpret and manage those divisions, as remembered by some older respondents in studies hosted by the archive.