/2017/08/16/can-we-play-now/ Εxploring the relationship between childhood and public life Wed, 19 Sep 2018 08:03:28 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 /2017/08/16/can-we-play-now/#comment-203 Wed, 19 Sep 2018 08:03:28 +0000 https://childhoodpublics.org/?p=1937#comment-203 […] we’ and ‘what are we doing’?! Particularly after long sessions of meeting up with children, having played the entire time and not being able to articulate a single question or research task, we also wondered about what it […]

]]> /2017/08/16/can-we-play-now/#comment-182 Wed, 16 Aug 2017 11:46:21 +0000 https://childhoodpublics.org/?p=1937#comment-182 I experienced similar thoughts and moments doing research with very young children. As some of them were actually babies, this sometimes implied crawling or lying on the floor, or if they were a bit older lots of bending down and trying to fit through small ‘tunnels’ and corners. Working with babies and their mothers, however, this approach also meant having a liminal role as carer/helper, as many times I was left with a baby on my arms while her mum changed her toddler’s nappy or made some dinner. I have reflected a lot about these experiences – I recall one particular moment as an example, in which I was holding a baby on my arms and she took my hand. Her hand was very cold and I wrapped it with mine while thinking whether she needed some more clothes and warmth. I think these experiences are a very relevant part of research, but it’s difficult to articulate them because they don’t fit the spaces we usually have for communicating research ‘results’, so I really appreciate the space you are creating here for this kind of reflection!

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