Speculating the Symbio: Possibilities for Multispecies and Multi-Entity World Making in Childhood

Keywords: speculative fiction, childhood, symbiosis, multispecies and multi-entity relations, vital materialism

Abstract

In this paper, I attempt to interrupt conventional analyses of childhood and instead illustrate the importance of diverse stories around child-nature relations. Vital materialist perspectives dismantle and disrupt binaries, so by exploring these perspectives, I am decentering the (adult) human and thinking-with the possibilities for multispecies relations in precarious times. This paper finishes with a speculative story that proposes lively experiments in multispecies and multi-entity possibilities, in a near-future contaminated Toronto. Enabled by microbes that have flourished on a shipwreck of e-waste, children, birds, and a dog codiscover the Symbio.

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Published
2022-04-09
How to Cite
O’Brien, S. (2022). Speculating the Symbio: Possibilities for Multispecies and Multi-Entity World Making in Childhood. Journal of Childhood Studies, 45-55. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs202219969
Section
Articles from Research