Toward a critical theory of playful research in the internet age

Abstract

This paper engaged in the development of a critical theory of playful research. Using examples from Second Life, Minecraft, and hackerspaces/makerspaces, it argues that playful research is an intrinsic part of research ecologies.  It presents the idea that research can be joyful, liberating, transgressive in its pursuit of knowledge, and admits that the pursuit of knowledge also requires communal forgetting.  With those insights, it argues that playful research is happening and that we should encourage research to be playful.

Keywords

• transgression
• playful research
• liberation
• critical theory
• research