Child Studies Multiple

Abstract

This text is an exploration of collaborative thinking and writing through theories, methods, and experiences on the topic of the child, children, and childhood. It is a collaborative written text (with 32 authors) that sprang out of the experimental workshop Child Studies Multiple. The workshop and this text are about daring to stay with mess, “un-closure” , and uncertainty in order to investigate the (e)motions and complexities of being either a child or a researcher. The theoretical and methodological processes presented here offer an opportunity to shake the ground on which individual researchers stand by raising questions about scientific inspiration, theoretical and methodological productivity, and thinking through focusing on process, play, and collaboration. The effect of this is a questioning of the singular academic ‘I’ by exploring and showing what a plural ‘I’ can look like. It is about what the multiplicity of voice can offer research in a highly individualistic time. The article allows the reader to follow and watch the unconventional trial-and-error path of the ongoing-ness of exploring theories and methods together as a research community via methods of drama, palimpsest, and fictionary.

Exploring material things in family life : Morality and intimacy in sibling- and child-parent interaction

“…I suggest that a continued reconfiguration of our professional vision (C. Goodwin, 1994) and analytical position (Caronia & Cooren, 2014) is needed in order to explore how multimodal interaction analysis can be developed. This will provide, as I have demonstrated, possibilities to examine social phenomena in new ways that embrace and explore their "complexities" (Mol, 2002;Mol & Law, 2002;Sparrman et al, 2023). Specifically, exploring such complexities can be accomplished through detailed analysis of, and careful attention to, the diverse mobilisations of action that occur in the course of interaction.…”

“…Weaving together these three approaches enables an inquiry into how family life is enacted. Enactment is a key concept in the STS-research drawn on in this thesis (Latour, 2005;Law, 2004;Mol, 2002;Woolgar & Lezaun, 2013), and which has become widely used in Child Studies (see e.g., Aarsand & Sørenssen, 2021;Dannesboe, 2021;Eßer, 2017;Hrechaniuk, 2021;Sparrman et al, 2016;Sparrman et al, 2023). Studying social phenomena by means of how they are enacted enables an inquiry into how they are brought into being in and through the interaction of multiple (human and nonhuman) actors (Woolgar & Lezaun, 2013; see also Law, 2004;Woolgar & Neyland, 2013).…”

“…Exploring how multimodal interaction analysis can be woven together with ideas about collective action thus entails embracing the multifaceted and complex (cf. Mol, 2002;Mol & Law, 2002;Sparrman et al, 2023) ways in which family life can be accomplished. So, how might multimodal interaction analysis and collective action as accomplished by multiple entities be woven together?…”