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Enchanted animism: A matter of care

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Jane Merewether proposes a rethinking of the Piagetian view of animism, suggesting instead that children’s animism be conceived as a ‘matter of care’ which may then offer possibilities for living more responsively and attentively with non human others.

Image courtesy of interviewee. April 10, 2024

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The speaker conducts research on children's relationships with their environment amid climate change and ecological collapse, focusing on their connections with places, materials, and other species. They advocate for a strength-based approach rather than the typical deficit-focused narrative common in educational research, aiming to value children's skills and perspectives.

The concept of animism emerged in their research, where children frequently expressed that elements of nature (like rocks and clouds) were alive and had agency. Initially hesitant to document this tendency for fear it would reinforce negative stereotypes about children's thinking, they later recognized the ethical necessity of inclusively representing children’s views. This video video led to an exploration of animism through the works of scholars such as Jean Piaget, who considered it indicative of primitive thought, and produced a framework recognizing the interconnectedness of beings.

The speaker critiques Piaget’s Eurocentric view of animism, suggesting it devalues non-Western perspectives. They draw from contemporary thinkers, especially in indigenous studies, to reconceptualize animism as a form of care that encompasses all beings, not just humans. They emphasize the need for critical reflection on care, recognizing that it can be both beneficial for some and harmful to others.

The concept of "enchanted animism" is introduced, highlighting the playfulness inherent in children's engagement with the world, which fosters curiosity and innovation. The speaker employs multimodal research methodologies that allow for collaborative interactions with children, framing their findings as "murmurs" rather than fixed data. This video video research approach seeks to challenge anthropocentric views, encouraging an understanding of the mutual relationships among all beings.

Ultimately, the speaker argues for rethinking animism and care through a relational lens that respects the complexity of interactions within ecosystems, urging for a broader understanding of how children relate to their world. They conclude by suggesting that while this perspective won't solve planetary crises, it opens avenues for deeper engagement and responsibility towards ecological and social issues.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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Well, I research, children's relations

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with their world in the context of climate change

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and the burgeoning eco collapse that they're encountering.

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So I look at children's relations with places and materials

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and other species, and I'm interested in

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how educators can develop pedagogies to that, attend to

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and respond to these relations.

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Um, in my research,

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I take a deliberately strength-based

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approach to working with children.

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So that's somewhat in unusual

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as in educational research with young children.

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It's often characterized by deficit discourses

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where children are seen as, being beset with problems

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that need investigating and, and solving.

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And so taking a strength-based approach to my research means

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that I value young children's skills and their knowledge

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and their, their potentials,

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and I seek to explore the capacities

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and capabilities of young children

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and make, visible their views and, and perspectives.

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And my interest in young children's animism arose when I was

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re researching children's relations

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with the outdoor spaces they encountered in their

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early learning centers.

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And in this research, children constantly, responded

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to their surroundings in animus terms.

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So things like freeze and rocks and sand

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and, clouds and, and water were alive,

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and they were sentient and, and agential.

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So initially I found myself, avoiding this propensity

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of, of, of children to animate things, objects

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and stuff, because at the time I felt it was counter

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to my commitment to, strengths-based research.

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So it was counter to my commitment to show

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what young children are, are capable of.

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So when children did animate, things,

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which they invariably did

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because, that's a very common way for children

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to characterize their world, I avoided documenting it,

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because I was worried that it would be seen as

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yet more evidence of children's crude or simple

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or unsophisticated ways of thinking.

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Um, but this was a problem as far as,

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the ethics of my project.

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It, because I'd also given assurances to parents

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and, and educators

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and the children themselves

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that I not portray children in a, in a negative light

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because consent for me to conduct my research was,

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was given based on these assurances.

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Um, but as time went on,

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I found I just couldn't avoid children's animism any longer.

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So basically, children animated almost everything about

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their outdoor spaces

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and avoiding it, as part

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of my data meant it significantly reduced the amount

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of data I was able to to work with.

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So that sent me into reading about animism.

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And I'm not a Piagetian scholar,

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but I had a vague recollection of

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that Jean pij had written about animism.

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So I went searching for that,

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and I found myself reading his book, the Child's Conception

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of the World, which is essentially about children

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and, and animism.

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Okay. So Jean Pi was a 20th century Swiss scholar known

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for his theory of cognitive development.

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And while it may be argued that other theories such as those

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of Levi Vygotsky have gained more traction in education in

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recent years, pre-service teachers and,

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and no doubt, other professionals

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who learn about children in their pre-service courses

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are still routinely introduced

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to pi in theory in Australia.

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Pre-service teachers are often introduced to pi

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Pi in theory, early in their courses, a part of,

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child development studies, but they also encounter pi gdi

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and ideas throughout their course in the guise

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of things like developmentally appropriate practice

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schema theory,

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and constructivism, which PI is, is seen

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as, as the father of.

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So, while most teachers would be familiar

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with those pi and ideas, I suspect very few

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of them would likely know that it's his study

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of young children's animism that actually underpin them.

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Uh, and the child's conception of the world,

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which was published in 1929.

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So very early in Piaget's long career, is pretty much

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entirely about children's animism, which he defines

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as attributing life and consciousness to things.

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So pij differentiates between the concept of life and the,

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and the concept concept of consciousness,

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and to to study the concept of life.

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Pi asks children is the thing,

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so is the, the wind or the sun or the rain alive.

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And then he asked them why.

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And he then, categorized

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or assigned children's answer to one of four stages.

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So children who attributed either life

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or consciousness to, a thing on the basis

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that it was anyway, usable

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or functional was said to be in stage, one.

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And so, for example,

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a child might say an unbroken cup is alive,

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but a broken one is not alive.

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And so they were in stage one children who attributed life

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or consciousness to something that,

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that moved were allocated to stage two.

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So a, a a rolling ball might be alive,

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but it's not alive if it's not rolling.

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And then those who attributed life

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and consciousness to anything that could move

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of its own accord, such as rain

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and wind, were deemed to be in, in stage three

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and a child in stage four, restricted life to animals or to.

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And so you can see that,

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Piaget's stage based theory of, of cognitive development

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had its roots in this very early work on animism.

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So in this book, the child's conception of the world,

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PIJ equates animism animism with simplistic

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or what he calls primitive thought.

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So, and indeed, actually towards the end of the book,

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he attributes animism to children,

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savages his words, and animals.

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Now, I know, I know Pieja was a product of hist,

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but, quite frankly, I was shocked when I read that.

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Um, and,

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and I, I came to realize

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that PJ's work actively positioned so-called,

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civilized people as the only ones capable

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of advanced thought.

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And clearly I didn't agree with this.

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So I went looking for other perspectives on animism,

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that that's led me to work such as Graham Harvey's book,

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animism, and Respecting the Living World,

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and also others such as Robin Wall RA's beautiful book,

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braiding Sweet for Us.

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And there are many, there are many others,

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but it was indigenous writers

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and also non-indigenous anthropologists such

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as Deborah Bird Rose, who for years worked

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with indigenous people who gave, me a theoretical basis

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for framing children's animism as a strength.

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So when, now when I work with young children

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who animate clouds and rain

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and, wind, it's not pi I go

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to help me to understand or to theorize.

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Instead, I'm looking to writers

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who use relational epistemologies to show how

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animism is integral to the ways of being in

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and relating to the world.

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Uh, and it's led me to conceptualize animism as an aspect

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of care and as a way of caring for and, and with the world.

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So care is something we talk a lot about in early

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childhood studies.

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Um, I mean, because care is often gendered,

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it's long been a concern of feminist scholar scholars,

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a number of whom have explicitly theorized care through

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what they refer to as an ethic of care.

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And so this work has drawn attention to the biased

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and male orientated nature of a lot of the theorizing

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that's associated with, with notions of care.

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And it also argues that care is, something that

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all humans are capable of, not just women.

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So, feminist philosopher Maria Pooch de Bella Casa has

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built on this feminist work around care to develop a notion

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of care that goes beyond the human.

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So for pooch de Bella Casa care is everything that's done to

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maintain and, continue

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and, repair the world so that all can live in it

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as well as possible.

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So this conceptualization, conceptual of care

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and caring makes it possible to include, animals

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and plants and materials, forces histories.

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Um, so, you know many more things

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because humans are not the only ones that are caring

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for the earth, and it's being, everything is in relation

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of mutual care and, and push.

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Bella Cass's framing allows us to extend beyond the,

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the human to human obligations frequently

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associated with care.

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It moves away from anthropocentric conceptual

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conceptualizations of care,

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and acknowledges that caring takes place within an

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interrelated more than human network.

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Now, before moving on, it's important to emphasize that

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that care can't be assumed to be always innocent or good.

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We need to be careful not to romanticize, care as care

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for some individuals

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and species translates into suffering and death for others.

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So, for example, if, you know, we might be caring

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for a patch of remnant, bushland or forest,

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and that might result in the death of weeds or snails and

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or caring for a waterway, certainly in an Australian context

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would mean, might mean removing deliberately,

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released pet goldfish into those, into that waterway

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because they're, they're, they don't belong there.

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And, but caring for that, waterway would require us

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to remove those introduced species.

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Um, so care then needs to be,

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and needs to involve a practice of, of, of critique

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where we ask, you know, what counts as care

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and how else might care be imagined and, and practice.

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And in short, who am I

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and what am I really caring for and why?

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And, and at what cost to whom?

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So animism also must be subjected to the, to, to this

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critique where we ask, what does animism activate?

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And for whom does it matter?

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So, and chartered animism draws attention to

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what political theorist

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and philosopher Jane Bennett calls thing power,

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which she describes as the curious ability

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of inanimate things to animate, to act

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and to produce effects.

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So if you've ever felt compelled

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to pick up a shiny smooth stone or a shell,

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or to run your fingers over moss

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or to hold onto an old coin,

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then you've experienced thing power.

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Something about these things grabs your attention.

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Um, they seemingly inert things have power.

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They have agency, they enchant you.

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Uh, so young children are very responsive

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and sensitive to, the enchantment of things.

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Anyone who's spent any time at all rules know

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that young children are often completely mesmerized

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or enchanted by what you might

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otherwise think are extremely ordinary things.

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You know, a button, a a scrap of fabric, a piece of paper.

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Well, that's thing power.

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Young children bring our attention to things.

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And in children's hands, things are seen as lively,

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alive, animated.

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So, you know, rocks talk back, clouds have intentions,

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gum, nuts think and so on.

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So in my research, I've found that,

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children's animism is very frequently associated

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with this kind of speculative playfulness.

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And so this is what I call enchanted animism.

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Enchanted animism highlights the, the playfulness

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that children bring to their animism.

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And this playfulness

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and the playfulness of enchanted animism, creates spaces

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for creativity and experimentation.

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It requires invention and imagination,

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but it's also, deeply rooted in experience.

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And I think that children's playful,

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yet serious animism can provide a bridge

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between the immobilizing, emotions of hope

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and despair that dominate in a world of unprecedented,

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challenge and challenges really.

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Um, and in terms of the methodological approaches

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that I take in my research, I draw on the multimodal

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and multiperspectival strategies

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and processes of in practice research called pedagogical

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documentation, which was developed, developed by,

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educators in the municipality, the Italian municipality

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of Elia, as a way of co researching

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with young children.

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So these qualitative research approaches include,

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conversation, drawing, playing, making,

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pretending, photographing, experimenting.

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So the, the dialogic

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and emergent nature of the pedagogical,

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documentation process enables me to collaborate with,

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with young children through sustained interactions

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and making space for the insights of young children

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who I view as experts on their own experience.

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And this enriches the research and,

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and contributes to its directions.

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And the other thing,

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that's important in my research methodology is that,

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unlike, the common perception of research

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where data is passive and separate from the researcher and,

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and data analysis is a, is a mental process

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that occurs within the researcher's mind.

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I, I'm influenced by new materialist perspectives

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that instead of relying on methods like coding

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and categorization

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and thematic identification,

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I take what's called a diffractive approach

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to interpretation that involves the simultaneous reading

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of multiple sets of data and theoretical insights,

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and allow them to interact and influence, each other.

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So to help explain this in my article,

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enchanted Animism, a matter of Care, I use the Figure

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of Murmuration.

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So this is the, the swirling Ever-changing mass of birds,

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that's always on the move.

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And so for me, research is always like this.

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So children's words, their drawings, my field notes,

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snippets of theory, and

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and so on, can never be construed as standing alone.

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So data are multiple,

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and, must always be read through

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and, with one another.

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And so to avoid the assumptions that go with the word data,

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I call these snippets

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that are generated in my research are murmurs.

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So they're softly spoken, often they might be indistinct,

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often barely audible, whispers that contribute to,

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possibilities rather than, immutable findings.

16:10.085 --> 16:14.065
So in, in my article, enchanted Animism, a matter of Care,

16:14.345 --> 16:16.225
I present, murmurs.

16:16.525 --> 16:20.465
So children's verbatim quotes my observations from my

16:20.665 --> 16:23.105
research, but I also present quotes about

16:23.335 --> 16:25.025
animism from other writers.

16:25.725 --> 16:29.025
So there are, quotes from pge,

16:29.605 --> 16:34.425
but also from Gdu elder Bill Ji, who's an,

16:34.555 --> 16:37.585
indigenous elder from Northern Australia,

16:37.585 --> 16:40.185
indigenous scholar Robin Wall Kimara,

16:40.365 --> 16:44.625
but also, anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose, who worked

16:44.625 --> 16:46.225
with indigenous people in Australia.

16:46.805 --> 16:49.905
So these two are murmurs that come together

16:50.445 --> 16:54.945
and apart in a, in a swirling, murmuration,

16:55.085 --> 16:57.505
as a speculative matter of care in a strategy

16:57.505 --> 17:00.345
that I hope makes room for relationality

17:00.605 --> 17:02.185
or the ways in which humans

17:02.365 --> 17:05.785
and more than humans are, integral parts

17:05.885 --> 17:07.305
of the, the universe.

17:08.205 --> 17:10.265
And so I hope, that this shows

17:10.405 --> 17:13.585
how children's enchanted animism can work as a matter

17:13.585 --> 17:18.185
of care, and, that offers the possibility of an

17:18.775 --> 17:21.945
alternative caring involvement.

17:22.415 --> 17:26.025
Okay, to, so to, to sum up, I'm proposing a, a rethinking

17:26.025 --> 17:30.865
of pi and colonialist views of animism,

17:30.975 --> 17:34.105
because they're deeply rooted in logics that seek

17:34.125 --> 17:39.025
to justify the superiority of Euro Western thinking.

17:39.845 --> 17:42.945
So rather than viewing animism as indicative

17:42.945 --> 17:46.025
of primitive thought, which is how Pi saw it,

17:46.375 --> 17:49.885
animism can be instead viewed as a relational way

17:50.065 --> 17:51.405
of being in the world

17:51.795 --> 17:55.325
that recognizes its inextricable interconnectedness.

17:56.025 --> 17:59.285
So children's playful and, and speculative animism.

17:59.615 --> 18:02.645
Their enchanted animism decenters the human

18:02.705 --> 18:05.485
and offers a way to see the non-human world as

18:05.995 --> 18:09.605
more than just mute resources that are there for the taking

18:10.225 --> 18:13.525
And chartered animism, allows the possibility of

18:14.075 --> 18:18.165
knowing non-humans in, ways that make them,

18:18.355 --> 18:21.365
more than just the, the back backdrop.

18:21.985 --> 18:24.525
Um, and so children's speculative

18:24.525 --> 18:28.645
and their playful animism can be conceived as a, a matter

18:28.665 --> 18:31.725
of care as it allows children to relate

18:31.725 --> 18:35.125
to the world in a spirit of, companionship

18:35.185 --> 18:36.325
and, and kinship.

18:37.025 --> 18:40.245
It can foster speculative commitment that,

18:40.245 --> 18:44.125
offers potential to disrupt habitual ways of perceiving,

18:44.125 --> 18:45.725
knowing, and, and thinking.

18:46.785 --> 18:50.445
And on the surface, this might seem an unusual approach

18:50.515 --> 18:54.795
because you're a western worldview position, humans,

18:54.945 --> 18:58.195
animals, and plants as living things on one hand,

18:58.295 --> 19:02.115
but, things like land forms and bodies of water

19:02.295 --> 19:05.955
and, planetary forces as, as non-living.

19:06.415 --> 19:09.835
But by flattening these distinctions, children, speculative

19:09.935 --> 19:14.275
and playful animism, their enchanted animism can create a,

19:14.635 --> 19:19.075
a space of doing and affect and open them

19:19.175 --> 19:20.995
and us, as adults

19:21.055 --> 19:24.435
to engaging in ethical political relations.

19:25.415 --> 19:28.835
And I I just wanted to reiterate that, I'm not proposing

19:28.835 --> 19:31.475
that animism is innocent, on, on the country.

19:31.585 --> 19:33.115
Animism is never neutral.

19:33.855 --> 19:38.145
Um, it's always admired in a web of associations,

19:38.605 --> 19:41.705
and we must constantly bring a critical eye to that.

19:42.365 --> 19:44.785
And furthermore, reading animism

19:44.785 --> 19:49.385
through logics other than, PIs is not going to be a,

19:49.465 --> 19:52.325
a quick fix for planetary crises.

19:52.905 --> 19:56.365
Um, but it does create, possibilities for attentiveness

19:56.385 --> 20:00.125
and responsiveness that opens humans,

20:00.225 --> 20:01.885
to their worldly embeddedness.

20:02.745 --> 20:05.805
So uncharted animism can offer a speculative space,

20:05.855 --> 20:08.805
which allows us to interrogate care

20:08.905 --> 20:12.365
and to imagine ways, it might be done differently.

20:13.225 --> 20:16.805
Uh, and so it's not just uncharted animism

20:16.825 --> 20:17.965
is not just for children.

20:18.105 --> 20:23.045
As Jane Bennett, has said, without Enchantment,

20:23.225 --> 20:26.925
you might lack the, impetus

20:26.925 --> 20:29.005
to act against the very injustices

20:29.395 --> 20:31.205
that you critically discern.

00:00 - Well, I research, children's relations with their world in the context of climate change and the burgeoning eco collapse that they're encountering. So I look at children's relations with places and materials and other species, and I'm interested in how educators can develop pedagogies to that, attend to

00:19 - and respond to these relations. in my research, I take a deliberately strength-based approach to working with children. So that's somewhat in unusual as in educational research with young children. It's often characterized by deficit discourses where children are seen as, being beset with problems that need investigating and, and solving. And so taking a strength-based approach to my research means

00:49 - that I value young children's skills and their knowledge and their, their potentials, and I seek to explore the capacities and capabilities of young children and make, visible their views and, and perspectives. And my interest in young children's animism arose when I was re researching children's relations with the outdoor spaces they encountered in their early learning centers. And in this research, children constantly, responded

01:20 - to their surroundings in animus terms. So things like freeze and rocks and sand and, clouds and, and water were alive, and they were sentient and, and agential. So initially I found myself, avoiding this propensity of, of, of children to animate things, objects and stuff, because at the time I felt it was counter to my commitment to, strengths-based research. So it was counter to my commitment to show what young children are, are capable of.

01:52 - So when children did animate, things, which they invariably did because, that's a very common way for children to characterize their world, I avoided documenting it, because I was worried that it would be seen as yet more evidence of children's crude or simple or unsophisticated ways of thinking. but this was a problem as far as, the ethics of my project. It, because I'd also given assurances to parents

02:23 - and, and educators and the children themselves that I not portray children in a, in a negative light because consent for me to conduct my research was, was given based on these assurances. but as time went on, I found I just couldn't avoid children's animism any longer. So basically, children animated almost everything about their outdoor spaces and avoiding it, as part

02:50 - of my data meant it significantly reduced the amount of data I was able to to work with. So that sent me into reading about animism. And I'm not a Piagetian scholar, but I had a vague recollection of that Jean pij had written about animism. So I went searching for that, and I found myself reading his book, the Child's Conception of the World, which is essentially about children and, and animism.

03:16 - Okay. So Jean Pi was a 20th century Swiss scholar known for his theory of cognitive development. And while it may be argued that other theories such as those of Levi Vygotsky have gained more traction in education in recent years, pre-service teachers and, and no doubt, other professionals who learn about children in their pre-service courses are still routinely introduced to pi in theory in Australia. Pre-service teachers are often introduced to pi

03:48 - Pi in theory, early in their courses, a part of, child development studies, but they also encounter pi gdi and ideas throughout their course in the guise of things like developmentally appropriate practice schema theory, and constructivism, which PI is, is seen as, as the father of. So, while most teachers would be familiar with those pi and ideas, I suspect very few of them would likely know that it's his study

04:19 - of young children's animism that actually underpin them. and the child's conception of the world, which was published in 1929. So very early in Piaget's long career, is pretty much entirely about children's animism, which he defines as attributing life and consciousness to things. So pij differentiates between the concept of life and the, and the concept concept of consciousness, and to to study the concept of life. Pi asks children is the thing,

04:54 - so is the, the wind or the sun or the rain alive. And then he asked them why. And he then, categorized or assigned children's answer to one of four stages. So children who attributed either life or consciousness to, a thing on the basis that it was anyway, usable or functional was said to be in stage, one. And so, for example, a child might say an unbroken cup is alive,

05:24 - but a broken one is not alive. And so they were in stage one children who attributed life or consciousness to something that, that moved were allocated to stage two. So a, a a rolling ball might be alive, but it's not alive if it's not rolling. And then those who attributed life and consciousness to anything that could move of its own accord, such as rain and wind, were deemed to be in, in stage three

05:51 - and a child in stage four, restricted life to animals or to. And so you can see that, Piaget's stage based theory of, of cognitive development had its roots in this very early work on animism. So in this book, the child's conception of the world, PIJ equates animism animism with simplistic or what he calls primitive thought. So, and indeed, actually towards the end of the book, he attributes animism to children, savages his words, and animals.

06:28 - Now, I know, I know Pieja was a product of hist, but, quite frankly, I was shocked when I read that. and, and I, I came to realize that PJ's work actively positioned so-called, civilized people as the only ones capable of advanced thought. And clearly I didn't agree with this. So I went looking for other perspectives on animism, that that's led me to work such as Graham Harvey's book,

06:59 - animism, and Respecting the Living World, and also others such as Robin Wall RA's beautiful book, braiding Sweet for Us. And there are many, there are many others, but it was indigenous writers and also non-indigenous anthropologists such as Deborah Bird Rose, who for years worked with indigenous people who gave, me a theoretical basis for framing children's animism as a strength. So when, now when I work with young children

07:27 - who animate clouds and rain and, wind, it's not pi I go to help me to understand or to theorize. Instead, I'm looking to writers who use relational epistemologies to show how animism is integral to the ways of being in and relating to the world. and it's led me to conceptualize animism as an aspect of care and as a way of caring for and, and with the world. So care is something we talk a lot about in early

07:58 - childhood studies. I mean, because care is often gendered, it's long been a concern of feminist scholar scholars, a number of whom have explicitly theorized care through what they refer to as an ethic of care. And so this work has drawn attention to the biased and male orientated nature of a lot of the theorizing that's associated with, with notions of care. And it also argues that care is, something that all humans are capable of, not just women.

08:30 - So, feminist philosopher Maria Pooch de Bella Casa has built on this feminist work around care to develop a notion of care that goes beyond the human. So for pooch de Bella Casa care is everything that's done to maintain and, continue and, repair the world so that all can live in it as well as possible. So this conceptualization, conceptual of care and caring makes it possible to include, animals and plants and materials, forces histories.

09:03 - so, you know many more things because humans are not the only ones that are caring for the earth, and it's being, everything is in relation of mutual care and, and push. Bella Cass's framing allows us to extend beyond the, the human to human obligations frequently associated with care. It moves away from anthropocentric conceptual conceptualizations of care, and acknowledges that caring takes place within an

09:37 - interrelated more than human network. Now, before moving on, it's important to emphasize that that care can't be assumed to be always innocent or good. We need to be careful not to romanticize, care as care for some individuals and species translates into suffering and death for others. So, for example, if, you know, we might be caring for a patch of remnant, bushland or forest, and that might result in the death of weeds or snails and or caring for a waterway, certainly in an Australian context

10:14 - would mean, might mean removing deliberately, released pet goldfish into those, into that waterway because they're, they're, they don't belong there. And, but caring for that, waterway would require us to remove those introduced species. so care then needs to be, and needs to involve a practice of, of, of critique where we ask, you know, what counts as care and how else might care be imagined and, and practice. And in short, who am I

10:48 - and what am I really caring for and why? And, and at what cost to whom? So animism also must be subjected to the, to, to this critique where we ask, what does animism activate? And for whom does it matter? So, and chartered animism draws attention to what political theorist and philosopher Jane Bennett calls thing power, which she describes as the curious ability of inanimate things to animate, to act

11:19 - and to produce effects. So if you've ever felt compelled to pick up a shiny smooth stone or a shell, or to run your fingers over moss or to hold onto an old coin, then you've experienced thing power. Something about these things grabs your attention. they seemingly inert things have power. They have agency, they enchant you. so young children are very responsive

11:45 - and sensitive to, the enchantment of things. Anyone who's spent any time at all rules know that young children are often completely mesmerized or enchanted by what you might otherwise think are extremely ordinary things. You know, a button, a a scrap of fabric, a piece of paper. Well, that's thing power. Young children bring our attention to things. And in children's hands, things are seen as lively, alive, animated.

12:16 - So, you know, rocks talk back, clouds have intentions, gum, nuts think and so on. So in my research, I've found that, children's animism is very frequently associated with this kind of speculative playfulness. And so this is what I call enchanted animism. Enchanted animism highlights the, the playfulness that children bring to their animism. And this playfulness and the playfulness of enchanted animism, creates spaces

12:47 - for creativity and experimentation. It requires invention and imagination, but it's also, deeply rooted in experience. And I think that children's playful, yet serious animism can provide a bridge between the immobilizing, emotions of hope and despair that dominate in a world of unprecedented, challenge and challenges really. and in terms of the methodological approaches that I take in my research, I draw on the multimodal

13:24 - and multiperspectival strategies and processes of in practice research called pedagogical documentation, which was developed, developed by, educators in the municipality, the Italian municipality of Elia, as a way of co researching with young children. So these qualitative research approaches include, conversation, drawing, playing, making, pretending, photographing, experimenting. So the, the dialogic

13:58 - and emergent nature of the pedagogical, documentation process enables me to collaborate with, with young children through sustained interactions and making space for the insights of young children who I view as experts on their own experience. And this enriches the research and, and contributes to its directions. And the other thing, that's important in my research methodology is that, unlike, the common perception of research

14:30 - where data is passive and separate from the researcher and, and data analysis is a, is a mental process that occurs within the researcher's mind. I, I'm influenced by new materialist perspectives that instead of relying on methods like coding and categorization and thematic identification, I take what's called a diffractive approach to interpretation that involves the simultaneous reading of multiple sets of data and theoretical insights,

15:02 - and allow them to interact and influence, each other. So to help explain this in my article, enchanted Animism, a matter of Care, I use the Figure of Murmuration. So this is the, the swirling Ever-changing mass of birds, that's always on the move. And so for me, research is always like this. So children's words, their drawings, my field notes, snippets of theory, and and so on, can never be construed as standing alone.

15:36 - So data are multiple, and, must always be read through and, with one another. And so to avoid the assumptions that go with the word data, I call these snippets that are generated in my research are murmurs. So they're softly spoken, often they might be indistinct, often barely audible, whispers that contribute to, possibilities rather than, immutable findings. So in, in my article, enchanted Animism, a matter of Care,

16:14 - I present, murmurs. So children's verbatim quotes my observations from my research, but I also present quotes about animism from other writers. So there are, quotes from pge, but also from Gdu elder Bill Ji, who's an, indigenous elder from Northern Australia, indigenous scholar Robin Wall Kimara, but also, anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose, who worked with indigenous people in Australia.

16:46 - So these two are murmurs that come together and apart in a, in a swirling, murmuration, as a speculative matter of care in a strategy that I hope makes room for relationality or the ways in which humans and more than humans are, integral parts of the, the universe. And so I hope, that this shows how children's enchanted animism can work as a matter of care, and, that offers the possibility of an

17:18 - alternative caring involvement. Okay, to, so to, to sum up, I'm proposing a, a rethinking of pi and colonialist views of animism, because they're deeply rooted in logics that seek to justify the superiority of Euro Western thinking. So rather than viewing animism as indicative of primitive thought, which is how Pi saw it, animism can be instead viewed as a relational way of being in the world that recognizes its inextricable interconnectedness.

17:56 - So children's playful and, and speculative animism. Their enchanted animism decenters the human and offers a way to see the non-human world as more than just mute resources that are there for the taking And chartered animism, allows the possibility of knowing non-humans in, ways that make them, more than just the, the back backdrop. and so children's speculative and their playful animism can be conceived as a, a matter of care as it allows children to relate

18:31 - to the world in a spirit of, companionship and, and kinship. It can foster speculative commitment that, offers potential to disrupt habitual ways of perceiving, knowing, and, and thinking. And on the surface, this might seem an unusual approach because you're a western worldview position, humans, animals, and plants as living things on one hand, but, things like land forms and bodies of water and, planetary forces as, as non-living.

19:06 - But by flattening these distinctions, children, speculative and playful animism, their enchanted animism can create a, a space of doing and affect and open them and us, as adults to engaging in ethical political relations. And I I just wanted to reiterate that, I'm not proposing that animism is innocent, on, on the country. Animism is never neutral. it's always admired in a web of associations, and we must constantly bring a critical eye to that.

19:42 - And furthermore, reading animism through logics other than, PIs is not going to be a, a quick fix for planetary crises. but it does create, possibilities for attentiveness and responsiveness that opens humans, to their worldly embeddedness. So uncharted animism can offer a speculative space, which allows us to interrogate care and to imagine ways, it might be done differently. and so it's not just uncharted animism

20:16 - is not just for children. As Jane Bennett, has said, without Enchantment, you might lack the, impetus to act against the very injustices that you critically discern.

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