October 14, 2008


Mapping Children’s Fear

Literally:

In Sunderland, youth centres now lay on minibuses for kids who dread walking through certain streets. In Bradford, getting to school has become a strategic exercise for children who have to avoid particular areas and get escorted through others. In Tower Hamlets, east London, which borders the Thames, one youth worker taking a group of local teenagers on a boat ride discovered that they had never seen the river.

These children live with a stifling awareness of territory. Until now, this psychological geography has been unchartered, but the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) today publishes a national investigation into its harmful effects. Over the past two years, researchers have talked to young people in Bradford, Peterborough, London, Glasgow, Sunderland and Bristol to find out where they feel safe, where they feel at risk and why.

posted by Andrew Simone in geography, psychology 

comments

One Response to “Mapping Children’s Fear”

  1. Deron Bauman on October 14th, 2008 at 11:29 am

    great post, Andrew.

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