Hybrid methods for hybrid play: a research toolkit

Abstract

In this chapter we outline a research toolkit for the study of Internet-connected toys and their processual and situated affordances. We account for the complex and varied ways in which connected toys, children, adults and media infrastructures interrelate and interact to form systems of meaning and ensembles of technologies and agency, which constitute the digital materialities and social practices of connected play. This toolkit of research methods uses an ethnographic methodology but is informed by two epistemological approaches—phenomenological and non-representational. Thus, this toolkit takes into account the sociocultural context, materiality and symbolic dimensions of connected toy use.