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Abstract
Social relations are commonly seen as exchanges between entities, a view implicitly indebted to Hegel?s account of the development of independent subjectivity. It is an analysis that explains many social interactions but that cannot explain key moments in social life. These moments occur in the non-Euclidean space and time of the in-between. This concept will be elucidated in this thesis through analysis of fieldwork examples and in relation to the work of Martin Buber and Donald Winnicott. The in-between arises when adults and children play together in the way described by Winnicott as playing in the third zone.
A phenomenological, interpretive analysis of forms of relations between parents and their two year old children revealed playing in the in-between during everyday family life. While the fieldwork focuses on families at home, the arguments are not restricted to this arena. It has implications for those working with young children, challenging the current emphasis on a task-oriented focus on teaching and learning.
A focus on social exchange creates early childhood programs that lack opportunities for being in the present moment in an unforced, un-knowing way. Such programs achieve set goals but may lack moments of infinite mutuality and tenderness such as those observed in the research. Relations cannot form when there is a continual focus on what is understood and known, on past accomplishments and future objectives.
The in-between has three aspects; being fully present, un-knowing and mutuality through love. This analysis provides new views that will encourage opportunities for children and staff to be with one another in simple but profound moments of the in-between.