Abstract

ABSTRACT This connective ethnographic case study highlights how three Brazilian immigrant children (ages 6–8) engaged in critical play on an online gaming platform called Roblox. Specifically, we examine how participants navigated and interacted in a Roblox minigame titled, Brookhaven. Brookhaven is a type of virtual domestic role-play in which players perform aspects of daily life with avatars in a digital town. Thinking with theories of critical play, restorying, and transnational childhoods, this paper considers how participants leveraged sociotechnical skills with their transnational experiences and imaginaries to build community in a mononational and ideologically precarious playspace. Our findings demonstrate how the children engaged in glitching and (re)placement practices to forward justice-oriented play across digital and analog contexts. Implications for this study advocate for assets-based explorations of young users’ play-based design practices that affirm and value their existence.

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