Abstract
‘Playfulness’ is a concept used in various disciplines. In this article, we conduct a qualitative, systematic, and interdisciplinary literature review on the term ‘playfulness’ as used in recent scholarship. The article aims to overcome the ambiguity relating to ‘playfulness’ in order to create opportunities for growth in all related fields of study. Based on 429 written works and the 184 extracted definitions of ‘playfulness’ across disciplines, we find six clusters of meaning all of which emphasise engagement. Three themes describe different methods for how engagement is structured to become a higher priority than its context. The other three themes discuss structural characteristics of contexts that are playfully engaged in. A new synthetic conceptualization is offered: Playfulness prioritizes engagement over external consequence, realness, or convention. Furthermore, the study argues that playfulness is not a ‘what’ or a ‘why,’ but a ‘how,’ a priority organizing principle.
Highlights
In the conclusions we propose a new synthesis
Previous literature reviews on playfulness have analyzed how it is used as a tool for learning, as a healthy disposition to the world (Gordon 2014; Sanderson 2010), an adult personality trait (Barnett 2018; Proyer 2017b; Shen et al 2014; van Vleet and Feeney 2015)
This literature review follows the tradition of qualitative meta-synthesis (Walsh and Downe 2005; Paterson et al 2001; Stern and Harris 1985, p. 152)
Summary
Many past investigations that are used to frame the study of playfulness focus their work upon specific instances of playing such as playing games (Landers et al 2019; Lucero et al 2014), video games (Lazzaro 2009), or play in children (Lester and Russel 2008; Lieberman 2014) While this style of investigation is valuable, other scholars have argued broader scientific inquiries are as important to understand why a wide array of behaviors even outside of games and play are experientially connected (Csikszentmihalyi 1975b; Kerr and Apter 1991; Salen and Zimmerman 2004; Stenros 2015; Sutton-Smith 1997). Previous literature reviews on playfulness have analyzed how it is used as a tool for learning (van der Meij et al 2017), as a healthy disposition to the world (Gordon 2014; Sanderson 2010), an adult personality trait (Barnett 2018; Proyer 2017b; Shen et al 2014; van Vleet and Feeney 2015). It is a productive method that has been recently identified as critical in several academic fields (Proyer 2017a; Stenros 2015)
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