Children's Geographies: Playing, Living, Learning

Description

Children'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 spatiality in the social studies of childhood. Stuart Aitken, San Diego State University, USA, Shaun Fielding, University of Birmingham, UK, Sarah Holloway, Gill Valentine, Sheffield University, UK and Nick Bingham, Loughborou

Sarah L. Holloway is Lecturer in Human Geography at Loughborough University; she is co-author of Geographies of New Femininities. Gill Valentine is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sheffield; her numerous publicationss include co-authoring Consuming Geographies, Cool Places and Mapping Desire, all published by Routledge.

'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