Conference Agenda

This paper offers a practical representation of evolving research within a PhD project, exploring play in a child-centred design process. During a workshop with children aged 6–8, the question "Can I cut the big box?" created a moment of tension that became a site of emerging knowledge. Drawing on abductive reasoning, the paper uses doubt as a generative method to explore uncertainty in fieldwork. Through writing and the notion of emplotment, the concept of Material hierarchies emerges - first grounded in material methods that position materials as active agents, then through the notion of playables - as a lens for reading the discrepancies between children's attitudes toward materials and the imaginative possibilities those materials afford. The paper argues that attending to these contradictions is essential to child-centred research: by holding both perspectives simultaneously, it becomes possible to more honestly represent the complexity of children's perspectives and the now they inhabit.