Samantha Punch - Children and Young People’s Relationships: Learning across Majority and Minority Worlds

This book challenges the current state of childhood studies by exploring children and young peoples agency and relationships. It considers how recent theorisations of relationships and relational processes can move childhood studies forward, particularly in relation to re-thinking claims of children and young peoples agency and uncritical assertions around their participation and voice. It does this by bringing together case studies of childrens inter-generational and intra-generational relationships from both the Majority and Minority Worlds. The main themes include negotiated power, agency across contexts and negotiations of identity. The chapters show both the heritage of childhood studies, particularly within the U.K., and where it may be going. One of the key aims of the book is to add to the limited but growing cross-world dialogue that encourages cross-cultural learning from research and practice in both Majority and Minority World contexts leading towards a more integrated global approach to childhood studies.

This book was previously published as a special issue of Childrens Geographies.

Samantha Punch is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Applied Social Science at Stirling University. Her research interests include rural childhoods and youth migration in Latin America and Asia, childrens food practices, sibling relationships and birth order in Scotland. Her recent publications include Global Perspectives on Rural Childhood and Youth (Routledge: 2007) and Sociology (with Harden, Marsh and Keating, Pearson: 2013).

E. Kay M. Tisdall is Professor of Childhood Policy at the University of Edinburgh. She is Programme Director of the MSc in Childhood Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships.

Learning across Majority and Minority Worlds

Edited by

Samantha Punch and E. Kay M. Tisdall

First published 2014

by Routledge

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN13: 978-0-415-82861-1

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Taylor & Francis Books

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The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen during the conversion of this book from journal articles to book chapters, namely the possible inclusion of journal terminology.

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Contents

Samantha Punch and E. Kay M. Tisdall

E. Kay M. Tisdall and Samantha Punch

Lynn Jamieson and Sue Milne

Vicky Plows

Ruth Payne

Kate Bacon

Lorraine van Blerk

Kristina Konstantoni

Berry Mayall

The chapters in this book were originally published in Childrens Geographies, volume 10, issue 3 (August 2012). When citing this material, please use the original page numbering for each article, as follows:

Chapter 1

Introduction: Exploring children and young peoples relationships across Majority and Minority Worlds

Samantha Punch and E. Kay M. Tisdall

Childrens Geographies, volume 10, issue 3 (August 2012) pp. 241-248

Chapter 2

Not so new? Looking critically at childhood studies

E. Kay M. Tisdall and Samantha Punch

Childrens Geographies, volume 10, issue 3 (August 2012) pp. 249-264

Chapter 3

Children and young peoples relationships, relational processes and social change: reading across worlds

Lynn Jamieson and Sue Milne

Childrens Geographies, volume 10, issue 3 (August 2012) pp. 265-278

Chapter 4

Conflict and coexistence: challenging interactions, expressions of agency and ways of relating in work with young people in the Minority World

Vicky Plows

Childrens Geographies, volume 10, issue 3 (August 2012) pp. 279-292

Chapter 5

Agents of support: intra-generational relationships and the role of agency in the support networks of child-headed households in Zambia

Ruth Payne

Childrens Geographies, volume 10, issue 3 (August 2012) pp. 293-306

Chapter 6

Beings in their own right? Exploring children and young peoples sibling and twin relationships in the Minority World

Kate Bacon

Childrens Geographies, volume 10, issue 3 (August 2012) pp. 307-320

Berg-en-See street boys: merging street and family relations in Cape Town, South Africa

Lorraine van Blerk

Childrens Geographies, volume 10, issue 3 (August 2012) pp. 321-336

Chapter 8

Childrens peer relationships and social identities: exploring cases of young childrens agency and complex interdependencies from the Minority World

Kristina Konstantoni

Childrens Geographies, volume 10, issue 3 (August 2012) pp. 337-346

Chapter 9

An afterword: some reflections on a seminar series

Berry Mayall

Childrens Geographies, volume 10, issue 3 (August 2012) pp. 347-355

How can we learn from research and practice in both Majority and Minority World contexts? How can we challenge the current academic area of childhood studies, with new and revised theorisations around children and young peoples agency and relationships? This special issue addresses these questions, capitalising on the intensive seminar series funded by the UKs Economic and Social Research Council. The series, titled Exploring Childrens Relationships Across Majority and Minority Worlds, was held between April 2010 and October 2011. It was organised by the Co-Directors and Associate Directors of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, a consortium research centre of Scottish universities. Most of the ideas presented in this special issue emerged out of lively discussions at these seminars and we gratefully acknowledge the contributions of all seminar participants.

We use the terms Majority World and Minority World (see also Panelli et al. 2007) to refer to what has traditionally been known as the third world and the first world or more recently as the Global South and the Global North. This acknowledges that the majority of population, poverty, land mass and lifestyles is located in the former, in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and thus seeks to shift the balance of our world views that frequently privilege western and northern populations and issues (Punch 2003). The dichotomy does risk over-simplicity: for example, the rising powers of countries such as Brazil, China and India do not sit easily within either category, and each category contains considerable and salient differences. At the same time, the dichotomy has proved a useful device to challenge thinking throughout the seminar series, particularly given the lack of learning across research conducted in these contexts. Across the papers, we generally use children and young people to refer to the age group under the age of 18, as defined by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This phrase aims to respect that many older children prefer the category young people to children. Papers may use children, when referring particularly to childhood studies, childrens rights, and when using quotations.