Stuart C. Aitken

Concern is growing about children’s rights and the curtailment of those rights through the excesses of neoliberal governance. This book discusses children’s spatial and citizenship rights, and the ways young people and their families push against diminished rights. Armed initially with theoretical concerns about the construction of children through the political status quo and the ways youth rights are spatially segregated, the book begins with a disarmingly simple supposition: Young people have the right to make and remake their spaces and, as a consequence, themselves. This book de-centers monadic ideas of children in favor of a post-humanist perspective, which embraces the radical relationality of children as more-than-children/more-than-human. Its empirical focus begins with the struggles of Slovenian Izbrisani (‘erased’) youth from 1992 to the present day and reaches out to child rights and youth activists elsewhere in the world with examples from South America, Eastern Europe and the USA. The author argues that universal child rights have not worked and pushes for a more radical, sustainable ethics, which dares to admit that children’s humanity is something more than we, as adults, can imagine. Chapters in this groundbreaking contribution will be of interest to students, researchers and practitioners in the social sciences, humanities and public policy.

Erasure, Neoliberal Politics and Postchild Ethics

Young People, Rights and Place

Societal notions of fathers have evolved from the distant breadwinner through genial dad and masculine role model to today's equal co-parent. This book seeks to explore the spaces and movements of men-as-fathers. Weaving together theories of space, sexuality and political identity with the stories of fathers from a range of sources, including popular culture, it discusses the way in which geographies of space can disconnect and disempower fathers, while societal notions marginalize and disassociate them from raising children. It explores how fathering identities are shaped by family and community spaces and aims to move the definition of 'fathering' beyond its definition in opposition to 'mothering'. In doing so, it provides insights into the contradictory nature of father's lives and argues that, rather than moving away from the traditional notions of masculine roles, that the emotional work of fathering in itself is an heroic act.

The Awkward Spaces of Fathering

Gill Valentine

"The book covers some of the (traditionally) most obtuse and difficult-to-grasp philosophical ideas that have influenced geographers/geography. The fact that these are presented in an inclusive and accessible manner is a key strength. Many students have commented that the chapters they have read have encouraged them to read more in this field, which is fantastic from a lecturer's perspective." - Richard White, Sheffield Hallam University A new edition of the classic Approaches text for students, organised in three sections, which overviews and explains the history and philosophy of Human Geographies in all its applications by those who practise it: Section One – Philosophies: Positivist Geography / Humanism / Feminist Geographies / Marxisms / Structuration Theory / Human Animal / Realism / Postmodern Geographies/ Poststructuralist Theories / Actor-Network Theory, / Postcolonialism / Geohumanities / Technologies Section Two – People: Institutions and Cultures / Places and Contexts / Memories and Desires / Understanding Place / Personal and Political / Becoming a Geographer / Movement and Encounter / Spaces and Flows / Places as Thoughts Section Three – Practices: Mapping and Geovisualization / Quantification, Evidence, and Positivism / Geographic Information Systems / Humanism / Activism / Feminist Geographies / Poststructuralist Theories / Psychoanalysis / Environmental Inquiry / Contested Geographies and Culture Wars Fully updated throughout and with eight brand new chapters - this is the core text for modules on history, theory, and practice in Human Geography.

Philosophies, Theories, People and Practices

Approaches to Human Geography

Change is inevitable, we are told. A job is lost, a couple falls in love, children leave home, an addict joins Narcotics Anonymous, two nations go to war, a family member's health deteriorates, a baby is born, a universal health care bill is voted into law. Life comprises events over which we have considerable, partial, or little or no control. The distance between the event and our daily lives suggests a quirky spatial politics. Our lives move forward depending upon how events play out in concert with our reactions to them. Drawing on nearly three decades of geographic projects that involve ethnographies and interviews with, and stories about, young people in North and South American, Europe and Asia and using the innovative technique of ethnopoetry, Aitken examines key life-changing events to look at the interconnections between space, politics, change and emotions. Analysing the intricate spatial complexities of these events, he explores the emotions that undergird the ways change takes place, and the perplexing spatial politics that almost always accompany transformations. Aitken positions young people as effective agents of change without romanticizing their political involvement as fantasy and unrealistic dreaming. Going further, he suggests that it is the emotional palpability of youth engagement and activism that makes it so potent and productive. Pulling on the spatial theories of de Certeau, Deleuze, Massey, Agamben, Rancière, Zizek and Grosz amongst others, Aitken argues that spaces are transformative to the degree that they open the political and he highlights the complexly interwoven political, economic, social and cultural practices that simultaneously embed and embolden people in places. If we think of spaces as events and events encourage change, then spaces and people become other through complex relations. Taking poetry to be an emotive construction of language, Aitken re-visualizes, contorts and arranges people's words and gestures to

Young People’s Engagement, Activism and Aesthetics

The Ethnopoetics of Space and Transformation

Leo Zonn

Using contemporary film theory and elements of socio-cultural and political discourse, fourteen geographers examine the effects of cinematic representation of place and space on perceptions of self and societies in the world.

A Geography of Film

Place, Power, Situation, and Spectacle

The Geographies of Young People traces the changing scientific and societal notions of what it is to be a young person, and argues that there is a need to rethink how we view childhood spaces, child development and the politics of growing up. This book brings coherency to the growing field of children's geographies by arguing that although most of it does not prescribe solutions to the moral assault against young people, it nonetheless offers appropriate insights into difference and diversity, and how young people are constructed. Other books in the series: Culture/Place/Health (forthcoming) Seduction of Place (forthcoming) Celtic Geographies (forthcoming) Timespace Bodies Mind and Body Spaces Children's Geographies Leisure/Tourism Geographies Thinking Space Geopolitical Traditions Embodied Geographies Animal Spaces, Beastly Places Closet Space Clubbing De-centering Sexualities Entanglements of Power.

Stuart C. Aitken

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