Living Together in the Topological Home

Abstract

Abstract:The paper discusses the mundane politics of familial life from children's perspectives and portrays the home as a relational space of subject formation and a context of everyday politics. The approach is based on an Arendt-inspired understanding of politics and a topological conception of spatiality that appreciates the intensity, frequency, and significance of social

Not In The Same World: Topological Youths, Topographical Policies

“…Topography here refers to Euclidean spatial relations defined by proximity, distance, location, and boundedness—and topology designates spatial relationality, shifting ties of belonging, and discontinuity, as defined by social relations (Murdoch ; Häkli ; Martin and Secor ; Joronen ). In the first sense, the world appears as a continuous space of locations and regions; in the second sense, it is rather a disorganized and volatile constellation, established, ruptured, and molded through the connections that people generate with each other and with things, thoughts, artifacts, animals, plants, institutions, places, and so on (Häkli and Kallio ; Kallio and others ; Kallio , ; Kallio and Häkli ).…”

“…Altogether 129 girls and boys, aged eleven to sixteen, participated in the study and shared their lived worlds with the research team. The analysis revealed social networks and spatial belonging that exceed and cross territorially organized neighborhoods, districts, cities, countries, and supranational structures, as well as move between different temporalities, hence disclosing topological realities where young people lead their lives and identify relevant issues (Kallio and others ; Kallio , ; Korkiamäki and Kallio ).…”

Experiencing and practising inclusion through friendships

“…This paper draws on recent interdisciplinary research projects where participation and inclusion among early youth were explored in Finland (for previous results see Bäcklund, Kallio, & Häkli, ; Kallio, , , , , ; Kallio et al., ; Korkiamäki, , ; Korkiamäki & Kallio, ). A part of the study was carried out in with young people in primary schools (11–12‐year‐old participants, n = 74) and secondary schools (15–16‐year‐old participants, n = 55) and involved two months of fieldwork.…”

“…In select cases, a second round of in‐depth interviews was performed. In a critical ethnographic spirit, we regard these materials as “partial truths” affected by the situatedness of knowledge and the positionality of the researchers and the participants (Rose, ; for details on research ethics see Kallio, ).…”

“…During the preliminary analysis, the “geographies of friendship”, as introduced by Bunnell, Yea, Peake, Skelton, and Smith (), emerged from the research materials. We have hence analysed the participants’ communal lives, first, to identify where the friendly relations of Finnish early youths unfold and how they establish their friendships (Kallio, , ; Korkiamäki, ; Korkiamäki & Kallio, ), and then, to explore how young people identify, uphold and create inclusive communities through experiencing and practising friendship with their coevals and intergenerationally. This study brings together our research on two specific themes: young people's friendships (Korkiamäki, , , ; Korkiamäki & Tampere, ) and youthful political agency (Kallio, , , ; Kallio & Häkli, ).…”