In this post Martin Bittner, Melissa Nolas and Christos Varvantakis, all members of the Childhood Publics Network, reflect on their recent participation at the 6th Ethnography in Education conference in Halle, Germany and how this is a great example of working collaboratively in a network. 

According to the Merriam Webster online dictionary the phrase ‘more hands, light work’ is currently at the bottom 10% of word/phrase popularity. We can only speculate why (possibly because its antithetical to the individualised and neoliberal cultural moment we are living through?) but for us, as members of the Childhood Publics Network, the idea of ‘more hands, light work’ is pivotal to practices of solidarity and the ways in which Melissa and Christos have been working on the ERC Connectors Study, from which the network grew.