Module Directory

The area of Children`s Geographies began its journey in the latter parts of the twentieth century and is now a well-established interdisciplinary field in both Childhood Studies and Human Geography for the foregrounding of core concepts such as time, space and place.

This module `Geographies of Children and Youth` will critically examine the diverse experiences of children and young people across time and space and consider how the discursive and material construction of childhood is shaped by these geographical concepts.

Theoretical frameworks such as post-structuralism, post-colonialism, and critical race theory will be deployed to examine core issues in childhood studies such as home and homelessness, institutions and the institutionalisation of childhood, the street, cultural and community participation, and nation and nationhood.

A critical approach to children`s rights is adopted throughout, taking a rights-respecting approach while evaluating the articulation and application of rights to diverse childhoods and children`s lived experiences.

The aims of this module are:

• To foreground and provide critical understanding of the role of place, space and time in children’s everyday lives and the construction of childhood itself


• To introduce students to the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of children’s geographies, drawing from psychosocial studies, human geography, anthropology, sociology and history


• To encourage reflection of the role of key spatial constructs in children and young people’s lives including social institutions and institutionalisation, home and homelessness, street, community, locality and nation.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of the different constructions of childhood across culture, time, space and place


2. Critically reflect upon the key concepts and theories in the study of children’s geographies


3. To demonstrate critical understanding of the debates and discourses in children’s diverse experiences across time and space.

Week 1 – An Introduction to Space and Place

The first module session will introduce students, irrespective of background, to the field of children's geographies and core concepts such as place-making, space, and positionality. Students will consider that all of social life must take place `somewhere`, and be introduced to the geographical imagination as a critical, reflective tool, for understanding the spatial construction of children's lives.

Week 2 – Adult and Child Spaces

In this seminar we will reflect upon the socially constructed meanings of particular places, and the discursive divisions that develop, producing spaces idealised (and demonised) for adults and children alike. These constructions of ideal and inappropriate places for children change through time, both over centuries and across individual times of day. We will reflect upon how such ideas around space impact upon the construction of childhood and the everyday lives of children.

Week 3 – Constructions of Home I

Students will reflect in this session on the construction of home as an idealised space for children and families. We will consider the historical development of the private sphere of the home and the role this has played in shaping the construction of childhood itself. To consider the crucial aspects of power and agency within the home the latter parts of the seminar will focus on two core areas: children's bedrooms and bathroom spaces.

Week 4 – Constructions of Home II

The last session considered the idealised family home, this week we follow on from this by examining the experiences of children who don`t inhabit such environments notably children who live on the street and who live in alternative homes, including children`s homes and foster care.

Week 5 – Institutionalisation and Education

The 19th century saw the mass shifting of children`s lives in the public sphere from work to some form of schooling. The introduction of education, the birth of psychoanalytic clinic and the beginnings of `age and stage milestones` from developmental psychology and medicine, all shaped childhood in powerful ways. The resulting school environments both reify and produce contemporary constructions of childhood itself. This seminar will briefly consider the historical development of education and then focus on the contemporary spaces of schooling. Three will be examined in particular: the playground, the classroom and the dining hall. Here children's peer relationships, agency, and interdependency will be explored as we consider how children navigate such spaces every day.

Week 6 – Children and the Natural World

Since the influential works of Rousseau, western philosophical thought has long associated the innocent child with the natural world. Renaissance poetry draws on metaphors of fawns in the forest and romantic art presents cherubic children dressed in white surrounded by fields of flowers. This legacy is present today in almost all aspects of children`s lives, it is used to sell us bubble bath while at the same time underpinning contemporary early year`s education frameworks. In this seminar students will consider this complex and multifaceted relationship between children and nature.

Week 7 – The Global Child: Migrating and Moving

Globalisation is a complex and much debated concept and this seminar will consider the child within these processes. Changes in economic processes, international travel and global communication shape childhoods. This seminar will consider the impact of globalisation of the experiences of children and families, exploring for example transnational parenting, and children's experiences of migration including belonging, othering and diaspora

Week 8 – Locality and Community

The last two sessions have considered globalisation and its impact on children and childhood. This seminar returns to consider children within their local communities. Themes for this seminar include children's engagement with localities: their street, their park, their library, their community; as well as children`s agency and participation to shape services and facilities designed for them and their families. A case study will be chosen to examine children's political agency and citizenship, including for example the intersection of the local and global in children's environmental action or children`s activism surrounding local library closures.

Week 9 – In Class Presentations

Students will present their first assessment in class, the `No PowerPoint presentation` including Q&A.

Week 10 – Geographies of `Lockdown`

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting governmental responses shaped the year 2020 in unprecedented ways. The UK Lockdowns placed the most significant restrictions on citizen`s use of space, place, and community, seen outside of wartime. Shops, restaurants and bars closed, non-essential travel was banned and schools closed to all but vulnerable children and the children of `critical workers`. Social distancing changed the design of long familiar environments and short periods of daily allowed exercise were many people`s only access to worlds outside their homes. This seminar will consider the experiences of children and families during the COVID-19 lockdown and explore what can be learned about childhoods from this unparalleled time.

This module will be delivered via: 

• 10 x seminars

The learning and teaching methods for this module reflect its postgraduate positioning and rely significantly on student participation. Sessions will contain some `lecture style material` but will largely be dialogue based including discussion and debate, creative exercises, reflections and paired/small group work. Students will be encouraged to evaluate perspectives, draw critically on relevant theoretical frameworks and engage in critical, respectful discussion.