Thing-power-child entanglements: A resituated ethics of our research with young children

Abstract

Thing-power is a force exercised by that which is not specifically human (or even organic) upon humans. What happens, then, when we realize that thing-power and not-specifically-human matters matter in research with young children? What happens when we question the traditional divisions that remain dominant in contemporary conceptions of young children and the ethics of researching with them, where that which is not human, the matter, is considered as “passive stuff, … raw, brute, or inert” and where we ourselves, humans, and children are considered as the sole experience of “vibrant life” (Bennett, 2010, p. vi) , and as somehow more capable, developed, or feeling? In this chapter we disturb..