‘You can’t change people’: unsettling the narrative of trans/formation in therapeutic farming

This article examines narratives surrounding a ‘transformative’ intervention at a therapeutic farm for young people ‘at-risk’. At its centre is an exploration of ‘trans/formative’ experiences: the idiosyncratic, sometimes erratic, emotionally complex experience of a young person considering themself or their life trans/formed. Rather than scrutinising the potential beneficiaries of the charity's trans/formative approach, this article instead draws on in-depth interviews with staff to theorise trans/formation (often a future-oriented term) through a retrospective study of remembered childhood experiences. Examining what mattered in past childhoods can articulate and expand how we view trans/formation for present childhoods. Theorising past childhoods through the lens of trans/formation both specifies and develops a longstanding discussion in children's geographies about the significance of childhood memories. Centred around the notion of ‘wrongness’, this article recounts how narratives of non-relation featured prominently in participants’ memories and conceptualisations of ‘trans/formation’. Through this theme, we attend to the emotional and affective complexities inherent in past trans/formative experiences and examine how they inflect present-day relationships at the farm between adults and children. This drawing together of professionals and recipients in therapeutic farming enables us to articulate a multifaceted approach to trans/formation that could benefit both scholars and practitioners of childhood and youth.