Touching is worlding : from caring hands to world-making dances in multispecies childhoods

Abstract

<div lang="en" class="abs"><p class="abs_header">Abstract</p><p>In this article we analyze the phenomenon of touch to discuss care and knowing within child-animal relations. The empirical part was conducted as a multispecies ethnography in a comprehensive school with an educational zoo built in a huge greenhouse. Storytelling, Despret’s idea of “versions,” and insights drawn from dance are used to take a close look at touching events between the research participants. From observations of caring hands and the material-discursive dimensions involved in stroking, the article moves on to consider ways of knowing and not-knowing that intertwine and are produced in touch. Finally, touch is discussed as a complex worlding dance that always takes more than two.</p></div>