Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 22 No. 2 (Winter 2012) ISSN: 1546-2250 Critical Geographies of Children and Youth: Contemporary Policy and Practice Peter Kraftl, and John Horton, and Faith Tucker, (2012). Bristol, United Kingdom: The Policy Press; 296 pages. $42.95. ISBN 9781847428455. Too many academics are content to ignore the policy implications of their research; indeed, too many policy makers are woefully ignorant of the existence of relevant research findings and their background theories. Here, the editors have challenged the new generation of geographers who conduct research with children and youth to consider the policy and practice implications of their research, and in doing so, to adopt a critical approach. “Critical” can signal to some of us a rather alarmingly restrictive and doctrinaire Marxist view of a topic: mercifully, many of the chapter authors in Critical Geographies of Children and Youth are far too knowledgeable about the real world. Similarly, some of us simple environmental psychologists, foraying into geography, get easily bewildered when the sacred French philosopher Foucault is invoked, but reader, be not overly worried! In fact, you will read well-grounded research on topics as diverse as school meal policies in the UK (Jo Pike and Derek Colquhoun); how to include young people in heritage conservation in Brazil (Laura Novo de Azevedo); childhood in South Africa in the time of HIV/AIDS (Amy Norman); and youth homelessness policy in Wales (Peter Mackie). Another African chapter focuses on youth policy, neo-liberalism and transnational governmentality using a case study of Lesotho and Malawi (Nicola Ansell, Flora Hadju, Elsbeth Robson, Lorraine van Blerk, Elodie Marandet). From the USA, Alexandra Cox writes about anchoring identity: the construction of responsibility for and by young offenders. 291 British-based chapters include children and youth in sustainable development policy (Bethan Evans and Emma-Jay Honeyford); informal education in compulsory schooling (Isobel Cartwright); parenting policy and the geographies of friendship in an English Sure Start Children's Centre (Eleanor Jupp); and under the title of “Places to Go, Things to Do and People to See,” Richard Davies discusses space and activity in English youth work policy. Gavin Brown writes about the place of aspiration in UK policy to widen participation, and Susie Weller opposes school choice versus social cohesion in an examination of the ways education policies shape children's geographies in the UK. Some of the chapters are very particularly of their time. For instance, Jessica Pykett contrasts the underlying political philosophies of the last British New Labour government and the current Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, and how they have shaped “citizenship education.” Similarly, Gavin Brown’s chapter on Labour’s aspiration agenda for widening participation, which interestingly contrasts with Richard Davies’ discussion of Labour’s near-obsessive micromanagement of problematic youth, through a redefinition of the purpose of youth work. Some chapters are of their place: Ansell et al. examine the recently formulated youth policies of Malawi and Lesotho through a Foucaultian lens—seeing how policies can perform as “technologies of power,” enabling not only states but also transnational networks of corporations, agencies and organizations to exercise control over populations. Some chapters are less heavy with theory than others. For instance, a discussion of school meals, food vending machines and “tuck shops” brings us to the realities of the school day and how far the authorities can and should control children’s dietary intake within and beyond the school’s bounds. Should schools insist on pupils staying on site? What happens if parents are discovered passing junk food through the railings to their deprived offspring as schools force healthy alternatives? Can local planning councils refuse applications to would-be vendors of unhealthy foods in the neighborhood of a 292 school? In Pike and Colquhoun’s lively chapter, “Lunchtime Lock-In,” all of these questions are discussed as instances of the geographers’ concept of territorialization. Another attractively clear chapter is Isabel Cartwright’s on informal education, “Humanizing Moments, Utopian Spaces.” Education does not need to be confined within the school walls; the author draws on her experiences with youth exploring their city in an open-top bus (remembered by the participants for years afterwards) and using the café across the street as...
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May 8, 2017
Jonathan Crewe 
Open Access