Mess-making as a Force for Resistance: Reimagining Environmental Educational Research for Multispecies Flourishing

We are the living. We find ourselves in a mess that is sometimes called the ‘Anthropocene’. This is a mess that has been hidden, ignored, neglected through a narrative of progress, consumption, linearity, categorisation, control, prosperity, rationality. To respond to this narrative, we employ ‘mess...

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Main Authors: Hannah Hogarth, Charlotte Hankin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2024-04-01
Series:Australian Journal of Environmental Education
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Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0814062624000284/type/journal_article
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author Hannah Hogarth
Charlotte Hankin
author_facet Hannah Hogarth
Charlotte Hankin
author_sort Hannah Hogarth
collection DOAJ
description We are the living. We find ourselves in a mess that is sometimes called the ‘Anthropocene’. This is a mess that has been hidden, ignored, neglected through a narrative of progress, consumption, linearity, categorisation, control, prosperity, rationality. To respond to this narrative, we employ ‘mess-making’ as a force for resistance. We rethink our more-than-human relations by concepting with mess to invigorate, agitate and provoke. Employing Haraway’s (2008) ‘messmates’, we conceptualise how ‘we’ as ecosystems of thriving life forms are constantly living, learning and dying together and need to find new ways to co-research with/in/for more-than-human methodologies. These, we suggest, are inherently messy. The paper is organised in a nonconventional way in that it is mostly created by more-than-human narratives gathered from two doctoral post-qualitative inquiries exploring play in an urban forest school in London and animal-child relations in a wall-less school in Bali. We explore how mess-making is both generative and challenging as data emerge in dynamic and exciting ways. With this messy turn, we illuminate potential for educational futures that support multispecies flourishing.
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spelling doaj-art-be5f5f8b4eea4e47befef92d3ddc53372025-08-20T04:02:37ZengCambridge University PressAustralian Journal of Environmental Education0814-06262049-775X2024-04-014034035810.1017/aee.2024.28Mess-making as a Force for Resistance: Reimagining Environmental Educational Research for Multispecies FlourishingHannah Hogarth0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2993-1020Charlotte Hankin1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6705-6074Department of Education, University of Bath, Bath, UKDepartment of Education, University of Bath, Bath, UKWe are the living. We find ourselves in a mess that is sometimes called the ‘Anthropocene’. This is a mess that has been hidden, ignored, neglected through a narrative of progress, consumption, linearity, categorisation, control, prosperity, rationality. To respond to this narrative, we employ ‘mess-making’ as a force for resistance. We rethink our more-than-human relations by concepting with mess to invigorate, agitate and provoke. Employing Haraway’s (2008) ‘messmates’, we conceptualise how ‘we’ as ecosystems of thriving life forms are constantly living, learning and dying together and need to find new ways to co-research with/in/for more-than-human methodologies. These, we suggest, are inherently messy. The paper is organised in a nonconventional way in that it is mostly created by more-than-human narratives gathered from two doctoral post-qualitative inquiries exploring play in an urban forest school in London and animal-child relations in a wall-less school in Bali. We explore how mess-making is both generative and challenging as data emerge in dynamic and exciting ways. With this messy turn, we illuminate potential for educational futures that support multispecies flourishing.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0814062624000284/type/journal_articleChildhoodnatureconceptingmess-makingmessmatesmultispecies flourishingmultispecies momentspost-qualitativeresistance
spellingShingle Hannah Hogarth
Charlotte Hankin
Mess-making as a Force for Resistance: Reimagining Environmental Educational Research for Multispecies Flourishing
Australian Journal of Environmental Education
Childhoodnature
concepting
mess-making
messmates
multispecies flourishing
multispecies moments
post-qualitative
resistance
title Mess-making as a Force for Resistance: Reimagining Environmental Educational Research for Multispecies Flourishing
title_full Mess-making as a Force for Resistance: Reimagining Environmental Educational Research for Multispecies Flourishing
title_fullStr Mess-making as a Force for Resistance: Reimagining Environmental Educational Research for Multispecies Flourishing
title_full_unstemmed Mess-making as a Force for Resistance: Reimagining Environmental Educational Research for Multispecies Flourishing
title_short Mess-making as a Force for Resistance: Reimagining Environmental Educational Research for Multispecies Flourishing
title_sort mess making as a force for resistance reimagining environmental educational research for multispecies flourishing
topic Childhoodnature
concepting
mess-making
messmates
multispecies flourishing
multispecies moments
post-qualitative
resistance
url https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0814062624000284/type/journal_article
work_keys_str_mv AT hannahhogarth messmakingasaforceforresistancereimaginingenvironmentaleducationalresearchformultispeciesflourishing
AT charlottehankin messmakingasaforceforresistancereimaginingenvironmentaleducationalresearchformultispeciesflourishing