Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Working Group
Events:
Date Friday 18 May 2007
Location Geography Department, Swansea University, UKGuest speaker Dr Owain Jones, University of Exeter, UK
This is the second in a series of workshops being organised by the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Working Group. The workshop will provide a forum for child-focussed researchers to give a short presentation in a supportive environment, allowing time for group discussion.
Popular discourses are raising alarm over the contemporary risks to children and childhood. For instance, in a letter to the Telegraph, 110 childcare experts and professionals expressed their concern about the escalating incidence of childhood depression and children’s behavioural and developmental conditions (12/09/06). They stated that adults’ lack of understanding of the realities and subtleties of child development meant that childhood is becoming less ‘real’ for children.
Arguably, such representations of the crisis of childhood are underpinned by idealised and essentialised notions of appropriate childhoods. At the same time the material differentiations of childhood, which significantly alter children’s and young people’s likelihood of experiencing crises, are underplayed. In contrast, this workshop aims to tease out how and whether children can be perceived of as ‘in crisis’ or ‘at risk’, and how such experiences are tied to children’s varying positions in relation to a variety of axes of difference (socio-economic status, race/ethnicity, religion, (dis)ability, gender, and geographical location), which have very material implications.
Guest
speaker
We are delighted to welcome Dr Owain Jones as our guest speaker. Owain’s
discussion will draw on his extensive research in the area of children’s
geographies. He is particularly renowned for his exemplary research on
the otherness of childhood, children in the city and in the countryside,
children and mobile technologies, disordered spaces and interactions between
children's and adults' geographies.
Short papers (10-15 minutes) that explore the themes below would be most welcome:
- Axes of difference within and between childhoods – e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, (dis)ability, socio-economic status, geographical location
- Childhoods that have been marginalised or overlooked
- Children’s relationships with peers and siblings
- Childhood in crisis
- Any other research/perspectives that will further our understanding of children and childhoods
You are also welcome to attend and not present a paper.
Costs
Registration and Refreshments: £15 waged / £10 student and
unwaged.
A late booking fee of £10 will be charged after 4 May.
Tea/coffee
will be provided in the morning and afternoon, as will a light lunch.
A limited number of travel grants are available for postgraduate researchers
on a first-come-first-served basis.
Registration
Deadline for abstracts and registration: 4 May 2007.
Please note - there are a limited number of places available, and places will be allocated on a first-come-first served basis.
Download the registration form.
Any queries, please e-mail Naomi Bushin (n.bushin@ucc.ie).