Silencing Touch and Touching Silence? Understanding the Complex Links between Touch and Silence in Residential Child Care Settings

Green, Lorraine; Warwick, Lisa; Moran, Lisa

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.

Citation

Green, L., Warwick, L., & Moran, L. (2021). Silencing Touch and Touching Silence? Understanding the Complex Links between Touch and Silence in Residential Child Care Settings. Childhood, 28(2), 245-261. https://doi.org/10.1177/09075682211000111

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 14, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Mar 21, 2021
• Publication Date: May 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jan 19, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 20, 2022
• Journal: Childhood
• Print ISSN: 0907-5682
• Electronic ISSN: 1461-7013
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 245-261
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/09075682211000111
• Keywords: Silence, Touch, Children’s Homes, Multidimensionality, Constellation
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5329918
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09075682211000111