Childhood and youth Flashcards
What is age?
‘Age is a concept which is assumed to refer to a biological reality. However, the meaning and experience of age, and the process of ageing, is subject to historical and cultural processes… both youth and childhood have had and continue to have different meanings depending on young people’s social, cultural and political circumstances’ (Vyn and White, 1997)
chronological age
measured in years
Physiological/biological age
capability of body
Social age
how old we feel relative to others
Social construction of age
‘ a view that asserts that particular objects or categories are products of particular social arrangements rather than objects of nature with inherent qualities’ (Cresswell, 2013
Defining childhood: Convention of the Rights of the Child
There is no single law that defines the age of a child across the UK. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by the UK government in 1991, states that a child “means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier” (Article 1, Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989)
Defining childhood - UNICEF
‘Childhood is the time for children to be in school and at play, to grow strong and confident with the love and encouragement of their family and an extended community of caring adults. It is a precious time in which children should live free from fear, safe from violence and protected from abuse and exploitation. As such, childhood means much more than just the space between birth and the attainment of childhood. It refers to the state and condition of a child’s life, to the quality of those years
Deinfing childhood: the adult
‘Children’s lives are lived through childhoods constructed for them by adults’ understanding of childhood and what children are and should be’ (Mayall
Social construction of youth
The UK needs to take ‘urgent measures to address the intolerance and inappropriate characterisation of childhood, especially adolescents, within society, including the media (UN’s committee on the rights of the child (2008)
Adult proxies for the accounts of children’s lives
We cannot assume that adult ‘proxies’ are able to give valid accounts for children’s lives. Young people may have different values from adults or different perspectives on their experiences’ (Valentine 1999
What children, compared to adults, experience life
- ‘Even when children share the same settings as adults, such as the home or public space, parks and shopping centres, what they expect and what they are expected to do is likely to differ, and thus we see variations in the ways in which children and adults experience the same environment. For example, in parks the children use the space for play; physical and emotional exploration and development of various kinds, whilst for the adults who accompany the children the space may perform a social function, a place to meet and talk to parents and childminders’ (James 1990
Socio-spatial dialectic
people modify the places they inhabit, and the places that people inhabit modify them (Ed Soja).
Agency
‘the capacity of an agent to act in the world. Often interpreted as the capacity to act freely’ (Cresswell, 2013
Children’s geographies - participation
Right of the child to be listened to e.g. Children’s act (1989), Every child matters (2004), but ‘children are often denied the right to speak for themselves either because they are held incompetent in making judgements or because they are thought of as unreliable witnesses about their own lives’ (Quvortrup et al, 1994
youthful locations
‘we use the term “the street” as a metaphor for all public outdoor places where children are found, such as roads, cul-de-sacs, alleyways, walkways, shopping areas,car parks, vacant plots and derelict sites… to young people the street constitutes an important cultural setting, a lived space where they can affirm their own identity and celebrate their feelings of belonging. In essence, these places are “won out” from the fabric of adult society but are always in constant threat of being reclaimed’ (Matthews et al, 2000
