Materialities and Professional Practices

Abstract

This chapter concludes the exploration of four essential dimensions of professional practices and learning, now focusing on thing. Concepts from Chap. 3 are brought into entangled relations with ethnographic data, enriching a Gherardian notion of connectedness in action by zooming in and out on a range of material features of the Unit. Things are not viewed as static entities with stable, internally fixed properties, but are rather seen in relational terms, full of movement and entangled with emergent forms of knowing. The discussion refers back to previous chapters in Part II, beginning with a spatialised approach and then exploring materialities of organising and stability, and finishing with another look at bodies. The chapter shows how materiality and material work are crucial to the accomplishment of the ends of professional practice—in this case building resilience in families through partnership, and facilitating parents’ learning.