Silencing touch and touching silence? Understanding the complex links between touch and silence in residential child care settings

Lorraine Green, Lisa Warwick, Lisa Moran

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    4 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Touch and silence are neglected across most disciplines, including within child-specific academic literature, and their interconnections have not been studied before. This article focuses on touch/silence convergences in residential childcare in England, drawing from two qualitative studies. We reveal the fluidity, multidimensionality and intersectionality of touch and silence, illuminating the labyrinthine ways they frequently coalesce in children’s homes, often assuming ambiguous forms and meanings. We therefore offer new understandings of these concepts, as multifaceted, entwined, temporal and malleable.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)245-261
    Number of pages17
    JournalChildhood
    Volume28
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - May 2021

    Keywords

    • Children’s homes
    • constellation
    • multidimensionality
    • silence
    • touch

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