The absent presence of children and young people in everyday landscapes
Session sponsored by the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group of RGS-IBG
Annual International Conference of RGS-IBG
Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK
28-31 August 2018
Background
Tensions abound when making sense of children and young people in everyday environments. While some lament the withdrawal from public spaces of children and young people, particularly their independent (of adult) presence, others seek to curtail and constrain this on account of the dangers they are perceived to present and face. Similarly, multiple interpretations can be drawn from what are widely understood as "children's spaces" in the built environment, with the playground, for example, understood by some to celebrate and valorise children's right to public space, while others perceive it to be a tool to corral and constrain. Or, does social media usage among teenagers constitute an absence-with-presence in the everyday environment or might it be a means to achieve presence-using-absence? These substantive issues are of interest to those who are concerned with the quality of children's lives as lived and wider issues pertaining to childhood and society. These are also issues that have a wider theoretical reach. Do our understandings of childhood influence adults in "children's spaces" when children are not present? Is there an absence of children, but an ever-present of childhood? Does the absence of children from everyday environments leave our understandings of childhood open to misinterpretation? This session seeks to advance our understanding of the everyday landscapes of childhood, reflecting on the substantive and theoretical challenges that present through children and young people's absences and presences.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to John McKendrick ([log in to unmask]) by Friday 2nd February 2018. This should include title, author affiliation and email address.
In advance, please do not hesitate to contact John if it helps to discuss.
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