Björn-Ole KAMM

Also known as Actor-Network Theory. One point made by proponents of relational materialism (Law 1994) makes us aware of how the social is generated whenever actors practically connect entities with other entities, that power always needs other materials than just human bodies to travel (Latour 2005). Despite the "theory" in the name, ANT and relational materialism rather designate perspective, a methodology. Power and scale are effects of network configurations — and these networks are not out there but gathering devices for us researchers.

Employing respective software, QDA helps us deal with large amounts of data to unearth connections and build theories from the ground up. Following ideas of multi-modal and multi-media discourse analysis, QDA software works with written text, images, and audio-visual material.

I know that I know nothing. So, I do not even know that I know nothing, and thus, may know something (or, "suspension of judgment," Wittgensteinian Pyrrhonism). Question things taken for granted and follow every lead, describe before you judge and conclude. Be an ant (cf. relational materialism).

Cyber-ethnography takes seriously that humans are cyborgs (Donna Haraway), hybrids that form heterogeneous networks of bodily, semiotic, and technological elements. Cyber-ethnography now builds on the resulting ethical implications (online persona cannot be separated from offline individuals) and studies online communication together with connected offline situations. Offline conversations are triangulated with online interactions to draw a more holistic, life-world sensitive picture, not to play both sides against each other in a search for “authenticity.” Research encounters on- and offline are performative and should be analyzed as such. They do not point to “hidden truths” out there nor in the minds of people.

Intersectionality looks at multiple systems of oppression and asks researchers to be conscious of their own positionality (Nash 2011). Emerging out of discussions of how racism, sexism, and economic disadvantage systematically reinforce each other, intersectionality helps us understand how it is not just genderd divisions or not just growth-addicted markets that produce marginality and exclusion. Considering mental health in Japan, phenomena such as hikikomori or instances of neuro-diversity appear mostly male inscribed — offering support to male-identified persons only. Women fall to the wayside and become doubly marginalized. Intersectionality asks us to untangle these networks of disempowerment.

The rush into ludology (games as systems, the study of games on their own terms) and game studies (social, cultural, philosophical, and other aspects of gaming) continues. With the economic success of digital gaming, most of the research related to games and play focuses on video, computer, and online games – a situation referred to by a number of scholars as a “digital fallacy,” where non-digital forms of playing fall by the wayside (Stenros & Waern 2011). Understanding games as an activity and play as a frame of mind (Apter 1991), the study of analog games (board and card games, tabletop role-playing, larp) offers insights beyond what developers came up with. What do we do when we play?

Ideas of symbolic interactionism (Blumer 1969) form the first point of departure for my research and teaching, i.e., the perspective that people do not interact directly with things and other people but with the meanings these things and people hold for them. Experiences change these meanings so that the self, motivations, gender, and emotions become less mental entities than products of interaction (Harré 1992).

A variety of theories and approaches seek to understand why humans watch the movies they do, what sensations we gain from playing horror RPGs, how it feels to be sad as a fictional character and cry in a corner — only to cherish this feeling afterward. Media use research has moved on from Hollywood's hedonistic principle to media appreciation: The varied affective and cognitive responses and gratifications resulting from meaningful media exposure. Similarly, live-action role-play and cosplay studies investigate bleed and the gratifications gained from embodying someone else. Many borrow from affect theory but most importantly, emphasize the primary experience of researchers themselves. Transportation or flow (Csikszentmihalyi) offer interesting perspectives to study these experiences.

We can speak of open transculturality, such as Mexican fusion sushi, or look for hidden transculturality as in modern yoga's connection to European contortionist practices and ideas of a modern, healthy body. Methodological transculturality (cf. Monica Juneja, Axel Michaels) now is the critical but fun part. This outlook posits that there is nothing substantially novel (nor particularly "Western") about "globalization," that human lifeworlds and their cultural shapes are not partitioned along territorial boundaries of nation-states, and that subsequently, existing forms of obtaining and organizing knowledge are ill-suited for coming to grips with the above points (cf. David Mervart). Transculturality is a field constituted relationally, so that equivalence and difference, asymmetry and power, are effects brought forth by regimes of circulation and networks of exchange. To investigate the dynamics of cultural forms and formations means to be empirical and pay attention to the particularity of situations and the agency of actors. Thus, there should be no a priori assumptions before a study begins and explanations cannot take recourse in standard narratives of influence.