Learning on the move: exploring work with vulnerable young men through the lens of movement

Abstract

This paper discusses a practice context in which process and movement are central to the provision of care and support. It draws on data from a research project conducted with The Men’s Room, Manchester, England which used ethnographic and mobile methods to explore the complex task staff undertake in engaging and supporting highly vulnerable young men. The organisation’s commitment to getting alongside these young men includes a mobile and highly improvised use of temporary city centre spaces for delivering its work. In this paper, I argue that these movements of practice are not simply a logistical necessity or a physical activity, but involve a kinetic way of attending, reflecting, thinking and knowing in which the organisation’s movements are intrinsic to the provision of care and support.