Paper short abstract:

In this paper I will explore the ways that interlocutors engage with, damage, or even destroy physical objects and surfaces to enact material rupture when no alternative communication seems viable/legible to those around them.

Paper long abstract:

A broken window. A boot-crushed through a frozen puddle. An ethnographic drawing defaced to include symbols of hate. A shopping cart crashed into public art. Amidst experiences of anger, trauma, a new country, a new school, fear, apathy, and/or ambiguity about what lies ahead; children seek to be acknowledged, but often not through discussion. In this paper I will explore the ways that young people engage with, damage, or even destroy physical objects and surfaces to enact material rupture when no alternative communication seems viable/legible to those around them. I will think through this specifically within the context of my work in London primary and secondary schools as both physical spaces and as specific kinds of social ecologies, places in which – as part of ethnographic enquiry – I support young people's development of multimodal ethnographic methods in the aim of helping them to tell their own stories, in their own ways. The aim of this paper is to examine the value of disruptive communication. How does learning the weight of one’s own perspectives and ambitions for various futures impact on young people’s modes of engagement? How can ‘we’ (adults/decision-makers/witnesses) learn how to listen to more-than-verbal messages?