”Tokens, peer context and mobility in preschool children’s positioning work”. Nordisk Barnehageforskning, 3(2), 41-52.

The purpose of this study is to analyse children's positioning strategies at a Swedish daycare centre. The aim is to examine how children regularly construct, negotiate, retain and change the social hierarchy. The study focuses on how children invest energy in positioning themselves in relation to one another and how these positions are created and changed through the children's ongoing negotiations which allow them to move between different positions.

The study shows that children position themselves and one another in relation to established friendships, age and specific skills, depending on the context in which they find themselves, and the activity in which they are involved. Children are able to move in and out of different positions with their associated social status and power. The study identifies three factors that influence the opportunities of children to negotiate power and status in social relationships: established friendships, age and specific skills.

The data material consists of about 75 hours of video footage at a daycare centre with 20-23 children aged two to five years, with an over-representation of girls. The transcribed footage was analysed with field notes according to the positioning theory of Harré and Langenhoves . The analysis was carried out by observing the social behaviour of the children in relation to their social positioning.