Childhood and the politics of scale: descaling children's geographies?

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed a resurgence of interest in the geographies of children's lives, and particularly in engaging the voices and activities of young people in geographical research. Much of this growing body of scholarship is characterized by a very parochial locus of interest — the neighbourhood, playground, shopping mall or journey to school. In this paper I explore some of the roots of children's geographies' preoccupation with the micro-scale and argue that it limits the relevance of research, both politically and to other areas of geography. In order to widen the scope of children's geographies, some scholars have engaged with developments in the theorization of scale. I present these arguments but also point to their limitations. As an alternative, I propose that the notion of a flat ontology might help overcome some difficulties around scalar thinking, and provide a useful means of conceptualizing sociospatiality in material and non-hierarchical terms. Bringing together flat ontology and work in children's geographies on embodied subjectivity, I argue that it is important to examine the nature and limits of children's spaces of perception and action. While these spaces are not simply `local', they seldom afford children opportunities to comment on, or intervene in, the events, processes and decisions that shape their own lives. The implications for the substance and method of children's geographies and for geographical work on scale are considered.

Children's Political Geographies

“…13 common knowledge (e.g. Vanderbeck and Dunkley 2004;Wridt, 2004;Kallio 2007;Ansell 2009). To understand the variable meanings of the everyday it is necessary to retain theoretical openmindedness towards the many forms, arenas, starting points, and foci of children's political agencies.…”

“…Vanderbeck 2008; Ansell 2009;Kallio and Häkli 2013). However, in empirical terms, certain geographies have received more attention than others during the past three decades, providing fruitful starting points for further theorization and methodological work.…”

Changing children's geographies

“…This tradition of work has been open to the critique that it produced an overwhelming emphasis on different children's micro-geographies at the expense of a macro analysis (Ansell 2009). However, it is crucial to note that geographers' engagement with ideas about spatiality, and our strong heritage of feminist thinking, helped us to avoid the worst of the dualist split between either global (social structural/ minority group) or local (socially constructed/tribal child) modes of thinking; a split which, like the nature/culture divide, did indeed hamper the new paradigm in other disciplinary contexts (James, Jenks, and Prout 1998;Holloway and Valentine 2000a).…”

Spaces, Times, and Critical Moments: A Relational Time–Space Analysis of the Impacts of AIDS on Rural Youth in Malawi and Lesotho

“…Extensive research in children's geographies has demonstrated the significance of space and place for young people's experiences and identities (Ansell 2009;Skelton 2009). Spatially structured political-economic processes produce spatially uneven lifechances (Katz 2004;Ruddick 2003).…”