Description
Book SynopsisChildren''s Geographies is an overview of a rapidly expanding area of cutting edge research. Drawing on original research and extensive case studies in Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia, the book analyses children''s experiences of playing, living and learning.
The diverse case studies range from an historical analysis of gender relationss in nineteenth century North American playgrounds through to children''s experiences of after school care in contemporary Britain, to street cultures amongst homeless children in Indonesia at the end of the twentieth century. Threaded through this empirical diversity, is a common engagement with current debates about the nature of childhood.
The individual chapters draw on contemporary sociological understandings of children''s competence as social actors. In so doing they not only illustrate the importance of such an approach to our understandings of children''s geographies, they also contribute to current debates about
Trade Review'For anyone interested in perceptions of childhood and children's use of public space, this book, the first of it's kind, is an interesting and valuable contribution to an emerging and increasingly interesting knowledge base. A fascinating and detailed look at how children from widely differing pats of the world spend their free time and use public open spaces.' - Issy Cole-Hamilton, Policy and Research Officer, Children's Play Council for Children's Society published in association with the National Children's Bureau
'This is an important book ... It provides an interesting and thought-provoking read, and offers a good base for what is an important developing sub discipline in geographical thinking. It is pleasing to see the quality of research projects upon which the discourses are based.' - International Journal of Population Geography
Table of Contents1. Children's geographies and the new social studies of childhood Sarah L. Holloway and Gill Valentine Part I: Playing 2. Melting geography: purity, disorder, childhood and space Owain Jones 3. Children's strategies for creating playspaces: negotiating independence in rural Bolivia Samantha Punch 4. The 'street as thirdspace' Hugh Matthews, Melanie Limb and Mark Taylor 5. 'Nothing to do, nowhere to go'?: teenage girls and 'public' space in the Rhondda Valleys, South Wales Tracey Skelton 6. Time for a party!: making sense of the commercialisation of leisure space for children John H. McKendrick, Michael G. Bradford and Anna V. Fielding Part II: Living 7. Play, rights and borders: gender bound parents and the social construction of children Stuart C. Aitken 8. Home and movement: children constructing 'family time' Pia Christensen, Allison James and Chris Jenks 9. Transforming cyberspace: children's interventions in the new public sphere Gill Valentine, Sarah L, Holloway and Nick Bingham 10. Young carers in Southern Africa? Exploring stories from Zimbabwean secondary school students Elsbeth Robson and Nicola Ansell 11. Home sweet home? Street children's sites of belonging Harriet Beazley Part III: Learning 12. Playing the part: performing gender in American playgrounds Elizabeth A. Gagen 13. Walk on the left! Children's geographies and the primary school Shaun Fielding 14. 'Out of school', in school: a social geography of out of school childcare Fiona Smith and John Barker 15. Nature's dangers, nature's pleasures: urban children and the natural Lily Kong
