Critical Geographies of Childhood and Youth: Contemporary Policy and Practice 9781447309079

Table of contents :
Critical geographies ofchildhood and youth
Contents
List of tables, figures and boxes
List of tables
List of figures
List of boxes
Notes on contributors
Acknowledgements
1. Editors’ introduction: critical geographies of childhood and youth
Why critical geographies of childhood and youth?
Academic context: studying children and young people in an era of ‘relevance’
Critical policy discourse analysis: definitions and approaches
Structure of the book
Part I (Inter)national youth policies: politics and practices of spatial translation
2. Making ‘youth publics’ and ‘neuro-citizens’: critical geographies of contemporary educational practice in the UK
Introduction
Educational geographies – space, spatiality and geography
Schools as spaces with distinctive cultural politics
The spatial imagination of ‘youth publics’ at school
The psychological imagination of neuro-citizens
Conclusions
3. Youth policy, neoliberalism and transnational governmentality: a case study of Lesotho and Malawi
Introduction
Analysing youth policy
Governmentality and biopower as alternative lenses
Transnational governmentality? An analysis of three documents
Conclusions
4. ‘Brighter futures, greener lives’: children and young people in UK sustainable development policy
Introduction
Childhood/youth, sustainable development and the future
Education for sustainable development
Brighter futures, greener lives?
Conclusions
5. Places to go, things to do and people to see: space and activity in English youth work policy
Introduction
Youth work: a distinctive ethical activity
Youth work: spatial and temporal aspects
Three examples
Theorising the spatial-temporal dimensions of youth work
Drawing threads together
Part II Education and employment policies: learning beyond schools and schools beyond learning
6. The place of aspiration in UK widening participation policy: moving up or moving beyond?
Introduction
A brief history of recent widening participation policy
National aspirations; local interventions
Understanding aspiration-interventions in practice
The challenge of (re)orientating aspiration-interventions
Conclusions
7. School choice versus social cohesion: examining the ways education policies shape children’s geographies in the UK
Introduction
The education market and geographies of inequality
‘Locality, schools and social capital’ project
Implications for everyday geographies
Connotations for cohesion
Conclusions
8. Lunchtime lock-in: territorialisation and UK school meals policies
Introduction
School meals in England
Implementation of school food policy
Policing the school boundary
Conclusions
9. Informal education in compulsory schooling in the UK: humanising moments, utopian spaces?
Introduction
What is informal education?
Formal, non-formal and informal education: what’s in a name?
An analysis of informal education’s four key principles
Conclusions
Part III Intervening in ‘everyday life’: scales, practices and the ‘spatial imagination’ in youth policy and professional practice
10. A free for all? Scale and young people’s participation in UK transport planning
Introduction
Methods
Young people’s campaigns to identify local transport problems
Young people’s sustained campaigns for local transport improvement
Scale, local youth campaigns and national policy
Scale, the ‘credit crunch’ and the UK Coalition government
Conclusion
11. Including young people in heritage conservation in southern Brazilian cities: the case of Pelotas
Introduction
The exclusive character of the ‘inherited’ heritage
Young people’s values and heritage conservation policy and practice in Pelotas
Methodology and analytical framework
Discussion of findings
Conclusion
12. Anchoring identity: the construction of responsibility for and by young offenders in the US
Introduction
State interventions into the lives of young people
Adolescence and the individualising process
A qualitative study of young people’s engagement with youth justice interventions
Contours of responsibility
Expressions of responsibility
(In)visible responsibility?
Concluding comments
13. Parenting policy and the geographies of friendship: encounters in an English Sure Start Children’s Centre
Introduction
Spaces of ‘parenting’ in policy and research
Encounters in the uneasy spaces of parenting policy
Conclusions
14. Youth homelessness policy in Wales: improving housing rights and addressing geographical wrongs
Introduction
Homelessness: definition and legislation in Wales
Socio-spatial implications of homelessness legislation for young people
Limitations of homelessness legislation in Wales
Conclusion: towards more effective homelessness systems
15. Childhood in South Africa in the time of HIV/AIDS: reconsidering policy and practice
Introduction
Discourse in the era of HIV/AIDS
From crisis to action: the policy and programming landscape
Reconsidering policy in practice
Moving beyond the rhetoric
Conclusion
Part IV Concluding reflections
16. Concluding reflections: what next and where next for critical geographies of youth policy and practice?
What next? Where next?
Index

Citation preview

Critical geographies of childhood and youth

Contemporary policy and practice

Edited by Peter Kraftl, John Horton and Faith Tucker

Critical geographies of childhood and youth Policy and practice Edited by Peter Kraftl, John Horton and Faith Tucker

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by The Policy Press University of Bristol Fourth Floor Beacon House Queen’s Road Bristol BS8 1QU UK Tel +44 (0)117 331 4054 Fax +44 (0)117 331 4093 e-mail [email protected] www.policypress.co.uk North American office: The Policy Press c/o The University of Chicago Press 1427 East 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637, USA t: +1 773 702 7700 f: +1 773-702-9756 e:[email protected] www.press.uchicago.edu © The Policy Press 2012 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested. ISBN 978 1 84742 845 5 paperback ISBN 978 1 84742 846 2 hardcover The right of Peter Kraftl, John Horton and Faith Tucker to be identified as editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of The Policy Press. The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the editors and contributors and not of The University of Bristol or The Policy Press. The University of Bristol and The Policy Press disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any material published in this publication. The Policy Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race, disability, age and sexuality. Cover design by Qube Design Associates, Bristol Front cover: Children of the Thar Desert – Rajasthan, India. Kindly supplied by Dr Sophie Hadfield-Hill Printed and bound in Great Britain by Hobbs, Southampton The Policy Press uses environmentally responsible print partners

®

MIX Paper from responsible sources

FSC® C020438

Dedication For Professor Hugh Matthews

Contents List of tables, figures and boxes vii Notes on contributors viii Acknowledgements xiv one Editors’ introduction: critical geographies of childhood and youth Peter Kraftl, John Horton and Faith Tucker

(Inter)national youth policies: politics and practices of spatial translation two Making ‘youth publics’ and ‘neuro-citizens’: critical geographies of contemporary education practice in the UK Jessica Pykett three Youth policy, neoliberalism and transnational governmentality: a case study of Lesotho and Malawi Nicola Ansell, Flora Hajdu, Elsbeth Robson, Lorraine van Blerk, Elodie Marandet four ‘Brighter futures, greener lives’: children and young people in UK sustainable development policy Bethan Evans and Emma-Jay Honeyford five Places to go, things to do and people to see: space and activity in English youth work policy Richard Davies

1

Part I

Part II

27

43

61

79

Education and employment policies: learning beyond schools and schools beyond learning six The place of aspiration in UK widening participation policy: 97 moving up or moving beyond Gavin Brown seven School choice versus social cohesion: examining the ways education 115 policies shape children’s geographies in the UK Susie Weller eight Lunchtime lock-in: territorialisation and UK school meals policies 133 Jo Pike and Derek Colquhoun nine Informal education in compulsory schooling in the UK: humanising 151 moments, utopian spaces? Isabel Cartwright

v

Contents Critical geographies of childhood and youth

Part III Intervening in ‘everyday life’: scales, practices and the ‘spatial imagination’ in youth policy and professional practice ten A free for all? Scale and young people’s participation in UK transport 169 planning John Barker eleven Including young people in heritage conservation in southern 185 Brazilian cities: the case of Pelotas Laura Novo de Azevedo twelve Anchoring identity: the construction of responsibility for and by 199 young offenders in the US Alexandra Cox thirteen Parenting policy and the geographies of friendship: encounters in an 215 English Sure Start Children’s Centre Eleanor Jupp fourteen Youth homelessness policy in Wales: improving housing rights and 231 addressing geographical wrongs Peter K. Mackie fifteen Childhood in South Africa in the time of HIV/AIDS: reconsidering 247 policy and practice Amy Norman Part IV Concluding reflections sixteen Concluding reflections: what next and where next for critical geographies of youth policy and practice? Peter Kraftl, John Horton and Faith Tucker Index

365

271

vi

Sources of extracts

List of tables, figures and boxes List of tables 4.1

‘What children told us in our sustainable schools consultation in 2006’ 7.1 Anticipated length of journey to secondary school by gender 7.2 Anticipated length of journey to secondary school by research site 7.3 Example school-based characteristics making for significant differences (p