Paranoid parenting? Rematerializing risk and fear for children

Abstract

Both in the social sciences and in popular debates, recent commentaries on fear for children highlight the mismatch between children's and parents' fears and the risk of stranger danger, and point to cultural changes to childhood and parenting in explanation. This paper suggests that a materialist approach to fear and risk may be equally helpful to understanding, and of more strategic advantage in promoting social change which benefits children, especially those who have been victims. It is argued that if research is child-centred, grounded in particular places, and explicit about the social stratification of risk, then experience of victimization itself can explain a large part of children's fears. In support, the paper draws on quantitative and qualitative research with 1069 children aged 10-16 in a deprived area of north east England. The geographies of child victimization and children's fears are compared, showing that many fears about public space are spatially congruent with experiences of risk. These geographies of risk and fear are gendered and racialized and, in this geographical context, paedophiles and asylum seekers have replaced the 'stranger' in children's accounts of danger. Implications for current public and policy debates are discussed.

Over warmte, gezelligheid en ontspanning: positieve veiligheid in stedelijke uitgaansgebieden

“…beschreven door Pleysier (2010) en Bakker (2015). zij zich bevindt (Pain, 2006;Hutta, 2009;. Emotie, angst bijvoorbeeld, wordt binnen een dergelijk relationeel raamwerk geduid als het 'connective tissue that links experiential geographies of the human psyche and physique with(in) broader social geographies of place' (Davidson & Milligan, 2004: 524).…”

老年人移动构成的时空——老龄化地理学中非表征理论的引入①

“…It, they argue, fails to differentiate bodies and recognise persons through important social and demographic categories -such as gender, ethnicity, disability and age -that impact upon people and constitute the ways in which they understand themselves and their lives (Bondi, 2005). Moreover, critics argue that non-representational theory fails to recognize political power and intent (Jacobs et al, 2003;Pain, 2006), is masculinist, technocratic and abstract (Bondi, 2005;Thien, 2005), and distances deep feelings and emotions (Thien, 2005). Like Colls (2012) however, we argue that these problems and shortfalls need not arise, because non-representational theory does not require that existing approaches and areas of research be shelved.…”

Searching for safe space: the absent presence of childhood sexual abuse in human geography

“…Being a 'good-enough parent' (Winnicott 1973, 173) requires creating a holding environment in which risk and safety are balanced with opportunities for freedom and development and embodied parental love (Valentine and McKendrick 1997;Gabb 2004). With the exception of Pain (2006), these geographical studies of parenting have treated fears around CSA as endemic to contemporary culture, steering away from linking them to participants' own experiences. While critiques of victimhood in political discourses and the highlighting of resistance and resilience in lives lived under difficult conditions are essential (see Ritterbush 2012 andTutu 2013), so are efforts to critique and counter the global exploitation and abuse of millions of children (see for example Paul and Hasnath 2000).…”