Child Studies Multiple

- Collaborative play for thinking through theories and methods

Authors

  • Anna Sparrman Department of Thematic Studies - Child Studies, Linköping University, Sweden
  • Yelyzaveta Hrechaniuk
  • Olga Anatoli Smith
  • Klara Andersson
  • Deniz Arzuk
  • Johanna Annerbäck
  • Linnea Bodén
  • Mindy Blaise
  • Claudia Castañeda
  • Rebecca Coleman
  • Florian Eßer
  • Matt Finn
  • Daniel Gustafsson
  • Peter Holmqvist
  • Jonathan Josefsson
  • Peter Kraftl
  • Nick Lee
  • Karín Lesnik-Oberstein
  • Sarah Mitchell
  • Karin Murris
  • Alex Orrmalm
  • David Oswell
  • Alan Prout
  • Rachel Rosen
  • Katherine Runswick-Cole
  • Johanna Sjöberg
  • Karen Smith
  • Spyros Spyrou
  • Kathryn Bond Stockton
  • Affrica Taylor
  • Ohad Zehavi
  • Emilia Zotevska
  • Sonja Arndt
  • David Cardell

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.3529

Keywords:

children, child studies multiple, thinking with theory, productivity of methods, child, childhood collaborative writing

Abstract

This is the first experimental issue of Culture Unbound. It contains only one publication, which is a collaborative article co-written by 32 authors. Open peer reviews are also included in the publication and the reviewers are on the list of authors. The format of the article offers the reader a choice to read it either in a traditional linear way, or to hop from one section to another using the interactive interface of the document. The purpose of this issue is to support unconventional and creative ways of sharing research, to encourage conversations about academic thinking, writing, and publishing, and also to play around with ways of reading academic publications.

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.

References

Castañeda, Claudia (2003): Figurations: Child, Bodies, Worlds, Durham, NC: Durham University Press.

Cook, Daniel T. (2018): ”Panaceas of Play: Stepping past the creative child”, Spyros Spyrou, Rachel Rosen & Daniel T. Cook (eds): Reimagining Childhood Studies, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 123–136.

Deleuze, Gilles & Felix Guattari (1988): A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Gale, Ken (2014): “Call and response on email between and beyond the two”, Jonathan Wyatt & Jane Speedy (eds): Collaborative Writing as Inquiry, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 34–39.

Gustafsson, Daniel (2019): “On the possibility of saying ‘No’: Reimagining ‘meaningful leisure time’ at a summer camp for disabled children and youths”, Anna Sparrman (ed): Making Culture: Children’s and Young People’s Leisure Cultures, Göteborg: Kulturanalys Norden, 68–72. https://kulturanalys.se/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/antologi_making_culture-1.pdf

Haraway, Donna (2016): Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Hirsch, Marianne & Leo Spitzer (2013): “First person, plural: Notes on voice and collaboration”, Jackie Stacey & Janet Wolff (eds): Writing Otherwise: Experiments in Cultural Criticism, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 190–202.

Hodder, Ian (2012): Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships between Humans and Things, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Ingold, Tim (2010): “Bringing things to life: Creative entanglements in a world of materials”, ESRC National Centre for Research Methods. Working paper, https://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/id/eprint/1306/1/0510_creative_entanglements.pdf

Ingold, Tim (2016): Lines: A brief history, London: Routledge.

Ingold, Tim & Elizabeth Hallam (2007): “Creativity and cultural improvisation: An introduction”, Elizabeth Hallam and Timothy Ingold (eds): Creativity and Cultural Improvisation, New York: Berg, 1–25.

Jackson, Alecia Y. & Lisa A. Mazzei (2012): Thinking with Theory in Qualitative Research: Viewing Data across Multiple Perspectives, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

James, Allison, Chris Jenks & Alan Prout (1998): Theorizing Childhood, Cambridge, New York: Polity Press.

Jansson, Tove (2010): “The invisible child”, Tove Janson, Tales from Moominvalley, New York: Square Fish.

Law, John (2004): After method. Mess in social science research, London: Routledge.

Law, John (1994): Organizing Modernity, Oxford: Blackwell.

Lee, Nick (1998): “Towards an immature sociology”, The Sociological Review, 46:3, 458–482.

Lee, Nick (2001): Childhood and Society: Growing up in an Age of Uncertainty, Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Livholts, Mona (2019): Situated Writing as Theory and Method: The Untimely Academic Novella, London: Routledge.

Lury, Celia & Nina Wakeford (eds) (2012): Inventive Methods: The Happening of the Social, London: Routledge.

Mol, Annemarie (2002): Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Mol Annemarie & John Law (2002): “Complexities: An introduction”, Johan Law & Annemarie Mol (eds): Complexities: Social Studies of Knowledge Practices, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1–22.

Orrmalm, Alex (2020): “Culture by babies: Imagining everyday material culture through babies’ engagements with socks”, Childhood, 27:1, 93–105.

Orrmalm, Alex (2020): “Doing ethnographic method with babies: Participation and perspective approached from the floor”, Children and Society, https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12380

Oswell, David (2013): The Agency of Children: From Family to Global Human Rights, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Prout Alan (2019): “In defence of interdisciplinary childhood studies”, Children and Society, 33, 309–315.

Prout, Alan (2004): Future of Childhood: Towards the Interdisciplinary Study of Children (Future of Childhood Series), London: Routledge.

Richardson, Laurel & Elizabeth Adams St. Pierre (2018): “Writing: A method of inquiry”, Norman K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (eds), The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research 5th edition, Los Angeles: Sage, 818–838.

Rodari, Gianni (1996): The Grammar of Fantasy: An Introduction to the Art of Inventing Stories, New York: Teachers & Writers Collaborative.

Rose, Gillian (2012): “The question of method: Practice, reflexivity and critique in visual culture studies”, Ian Heywood & Barry Sandwell (eds): The Handbook of Visual Culture, London: Berg, 542–558.

Smith, Carmel & Sheila Greene (2014): Key Thinkers in Childhood Studies [Electronic resource], Bristol: Policy Press.

Savage, Mike (2013): “The ‘social life of methods’: A critical introduction”, Theory, Culture & Society, 30:4, 3–21.

Sparrman, Anna (2020): “Through the looking glass: Alice and child studies multiple”, Childhood, 27:1, 8–24.

Sparrman, Anna (2014): “Access and gatekeeping in researching children’s sexuality: Mess in ethics and methods”, Sexuality & Culture, 18, 291–309.

Stacey, Jackie & Janet Wolff (eds.) (2013). Writing Otherwise: Experiments in Cultural Criticism, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 190–202.

Thorne, Barrie (2008): “What’s in an age name?”, Childhood 15:4, 435–439.

Thrift, Nigel (2005): Knowing Capitalism, London: Sage.

Tillmann, Lisa M. (2015): “Friendship as method”, Lisa M. Tillman: Solidarity: Friendship, family, and Activism beyond Gay and Straight, New York: Routledge, 287–319.

Woodyer, Tara (2012): “Ludic geographies: Not merely child’s play”, Geography Compass, 6(6), 231–326.

Wyatt, Jonathan & Jane Speedy (eds.) (2014): Collaborative Writing as Inquiry. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.

Downloads

Published

2023-04-26

How to Cite

Sparrman, A. (2023) “Child Studies Multiple: - Collaborative play for thinking through theories and methods”, Culture Unbound, 15(1), pp. 1–53. doi: 10.3384/cu.3529.