Beyond text: Translating and exploring scoping review findings into object-oriented interviews

Literature review constitutes a fundamental phase in any research process, though it frequently remains a solitary endeavor confined to research team members. Engaging external experts and relevant target audiences in these tasks represents a relevant methodological advance. On one hand, this approach facilitates connections between literature review findings and the operational contexts of different stakeholder groups ; on the other, it enables deeper exploration of stakeholders’ experiences through systematically collected and analyzed theoretical foundations. Consequently, it becomes essential to identify methods that enable structured and effective connections between literature reviews and research target groups.

Object-oriented research encompasses diverse methodological approaches and techniques. Researchers may invite participants to bring objects to interviews (Schwarz, 2023; Thorpe et al., 2024), introduce objects to elicit responses including memories, emotions, and sensorial knowledge, or explore objects in-place through visits to familiar spaces such as participants' homes (Owen, 2022; Willing, 2016). Alternative approaches involve collaborative discovery of objects through walking tours (De Leon and Cohen, 2005). All these approaches share the common feature of bringing enhancing participant engagement with research topics while promoting deeper immersion in reflective processes. Objects transcend traditional roles as passive study subjects or research instruments, functioning as dynamic elements that actively shape methodological procedures and research outcomes.

Drawing from the STORYline project - Shaping Youth Citizenship Through Intergenerational Approaches and Digital Narratives (2023.11571.PEX), this paper maps the affordances of object-oriented qualitative research and examines how objects extend beyond narrative elicitation to enable material communication during interviews - operating both momentarily and temporally.

Preliminary findings suggest that scoping reviews contribute significantly to developing theoretically grounded object-centered interview protocols, ensuring methodological rigor and research credibility. Identifying convergences and divergences through scoping reviews and exploring these through object-oriented interviews facilitates deeper understanding of studied phenomena and informs hypothesis formulation for subsequent research phases.