Vibrancy, repetition, movement: posthuman theories for reconceptualising young children in museums

Macrae, BC, Hackett, Abigail, Holmes, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0114-5477 and Jones, Liz (2018) Vibrancy, repetition, movement: posthuman theories for reconceptualising young children in museums. Children's Geographies, 16 (5). pp. 503-515. ISSN 1473-3285

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Abstract

This paper argues for an expanded field of inquiry to conceptualise young children in museums. Drawing on Murris’ (2016) analysis of childhood constructions, we discuss how cognitive and socio-constructivist models of the child dominate childhood and museum studies. We argue for the potential of Murris’ figure of the posthuman child to reconceptualise children in museums. This perspective offers a greater focus on the potency of objects themselves, and the animacy of the non-human aspects of the museum. It is also underpinned by a theoretical shift from representation to non-representation (Anderson and Harrison, 2010), presenting us with new ways to address questions such as ‘what does that mean?’ when we observe children’s learning in museums. Working with data that has proved resistant to interpretation across a range of research projects, what we call ‘sticky data’, we elaborate on three themes emerging from this reconceptualisation: vibrancy, repetition, and movement.