The flows of things–exploring babies’ everyday space-making

Abstract

This article draws on a larger ethnographic study conducted in the homes of babies aged between one and 18 months and their families in Sweden. The article explores how everyday space is made in the homes of families through babies’ engagements with material things by methodologically working with maps, images, lists, and stories. Three themes–the practices of spreading things out, the height at which activities take place, and the multiplicity of things–are highlighted as important for understanding babies’ space-making practices. These practices are discussed in terms of the flows of things, which highlights how the practices of moving a multiplicity of things come to matter in the making of space in the homes of babies and their families.