Rats, various forms of poo, and societal undercurrents

The material and multispecies aspects of children’s worlds are often discussed in a reductive way. These aspects are commonly addressed through clear-cut and distinct events, for example, by observing play with objects (such as toys or stones picked up from the ground) or other animals (such as a pet dog). Childhood researchers John Horton and Peter Kraftl argue that, in the shade of these kinds of observations, there are things that are less easy to notice that still may play an important part in children’s lives and environments. Those kinds of everyday things are for example dirty water flowing in the streets or poo in suburban yards. Or packs of rats, who are skilled at avoiding people, and whose moves remain to be speculated about in rumours and stories. Spending time outside, though it is commonly recommended for children, can be strenuous, unidyllic, disgusting, even nightmarish, at times. A messy and defaced place may be associated with unpleasant experiences of racism and political tensions.

Why is poo as a topic emerging so eagerly and persistently in conversations with children and young people about their environment and its other-than-human inhabitants? There may be various explanations, one of them being that young people tend to hang out in places where droppings of different kinds of animals simply are in view. Yet, there might be something else about those places, and about poo as well, which keeps bothering young people. Sometimes uneasy feelings about poo are channeled in laughter.