Work

A little thing that returns: Refrains and young children’s sense making in museum spaces

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This paper describes a research collaboration with Humber Museums Partnership, which explored family museum visiting and early language. Drawing from ethnographic observations and continuous audio recordings, this article examines how very young children make sense in museum spaces. We activate Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the refrain (originally expressed in French as ritournelle, a little return) to analyse vignettes of children’s vocalisations and interactions across galleries, gardens, and play spaces. Counter to the dominant view of early language as relying on a linear “serve and return” between adult and child, we argue that refrains create fragile, rhythmic, and emplaced territories of sense making that exceed conventional meaning and representation. We propose that museums can foster an attention to these affective, embodied dimensions of expression as an important aspect of young children’s museum literacies.

Source: White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York)

Authors: Hackett, Abigail, Shannon, David Ben, MacRae, Christina, Maclure, Maggie

Institutions: Sheffield Hallam University, Manchester Metropolitan University

Language: English

Topic: Museums and Cultural Heritage

Subfield: Museology

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W7080194369

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