Work/Think/Play/Birth/Death/Terror/Qualitative/Research

Abstract

Inspired by work/think/play in qualitative research, we centered the idea of “play” in a qualitative research project to explore what proceeding from the idea of work/think/play might look like and accomplish. We pursued play in an experimental qualitative inquiry over dinner one night at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Our article centers on one work/think/play inquiry three of us conducted. Through a playful account of how play unfolded in our work/think/play inquiry that evening, we explore research play as generative, deadly, and censored in the context of neoliberalism and other terrors. We reflect on what (good) play does in qualitative research, what our work/think/play/birth/death/terror/qualitative/research accomplished, if anything. Maybe research play is vital, what keeps us fit to do critical qualitative research. Yet research play moves (well) beyond normative rules of much qualitative research. Is it worth the risk? Can we know? Even after?

Keywords

methodologies qualitative research methods of inquiry play

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Berlant

(2011). Cruel optimism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Davies

(2005). The (im)possibility of intellectual work in neoliberal regimes. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 26(1), 1-14.

Deleuze

(1994). Difference and repetition. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Deleuze

(1995). Negotiations, 1972-1990. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Derrida

(1993). Aporias ( Dutoit

, Trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Derrida

(2005). Paper machine ( Bowlby

, Trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Derrida

De Man

(1989). Memoires for Paul de Man (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Diamond

(2000) “What time is it on the sun?” An interview with Cora Diamond. The Harvard Review of Philosophy, VIII, 69-81.

Eberle

S. G.

(2014). The elements of play: Toward a philosophy and definition of play. American Journal of Play, 6, 214-233.

10.

James

(2006). The fragmentary demand: An introduction to the philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

11.

Lather

(2013). Methodology-21: What do we do in the afterward? International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26, 634-645.

12.

Lather

(2016). Top ten+ list: (Re)thinking ontology in (post)qualitative research. Cultural Studies↔Critical Methodologies, 16, 125-131.

13.

Mawby

R. I.

(2000). Tourists’ perceptions of security: The risk-fear paradox. Tourism Economics, 6, 109-121.

14.

Murris

(2016). The posthuman child: Educational transformation through philosophy with picturebooks. New York, NY: Routledge.