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Harmer, Alison 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9349-620X
(2025)
Playing with Being: A Philosophical
Enquiry into the Aproductive Ontologies of
Children’s Musical Play.
Reconceptualising Play through
Creative Ludic Research.
PhD thesis, University of Gloucestershire.
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Abstract
The musical play of young children is rightly valued for its extraordinary, developmental, educational, social, communicative, and therapeutic benefits. Currently, in northern Europe, the research of children’s musical play is led by the observation of the play’s appearances and effects, and this knowledge influences both the development of music education, and the monitoring of the transference of extra-musical benefits of the play to the child, and to society. Hypothesising that musical play is more than its appearances and effects, this thesis adds to existing knowledge through a transdisciplinary, performative, fundamentally ludic enquiry into the intangible, other-than-useful play of children’s musical play. The aproductive is omitted from the study of children’s musical play because philosophers of play, and play scholars, tend to recognise children’s musical play in relation to the “adulteration” of the activity away from play and towards the production of the play’s benefits, and music educators and researchers of young children rarely write about philosophy or the metaphysical because the application of its knowledge into music practice in early childhood is not explicit. Taking the opportunity to work towards an ontological expansion of children’s musical play into this lacuna, this research played three games which were inspired by the work of the multi-disciplinary Castalian monks in Herman Hesse’s 1943 novel The Glass Bead Game. Dominant scholarly narratives, ancient and modern philosophies, and complementary theories from diverse sources were orchestrated according to the enabling gestures and boundaries of three games played as research. This allowed for play to be mobilised as both a subject and a mode of enquiry – thinking about play through play. This creative, ludic research intends to expand musical play discourse towards ontology. Play is rendered fragile when it is reduced to only its utility, but through playing games, transdisciplinary research’s relational thinking can be well-played towards new discoveries, and rich interpretations of extant knowledge.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | |||||||||
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Aproductive; Creative Research Methods; Children’s Musical Play; Early Childhood Music; Glass Bead Game; Ludic Research; Ludic Enquiry; Musical Play; Ontology; Philosophy of Play; Play; Reconceptualisation; Speculative Realism; Utility | |||||||||
| Subjects: | L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1139.2 Early Childhood Education M Music and Books on Music > M Music |
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| Divisions: | Schools and Research Institutes > School of Education, Health and Sciences | |||||||||
| Depositing User: | Anne Pengelly | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 02 Sep 2026 10:05 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 02 Sep 2026 11:07 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/16490 |
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