Abstract
Influenced by legal conceptions and institutional approaches, much literature on difficult family circumstances has focused on identifying the abuse and neglect suffered, and potential ‘outcomes’ for children and young people, including the risks that such experiences may pose for their future lives. This chapter, in contrast, highlights the importance of examining children’s and young people’s understandings and lived experience of such phenomena. As Newman (2002) argues, the meanings that children themselves attach to adversity are important, and these understandings may vary between children and adults. Work in geography, sociology and other disciplines associated with childhood studies, and the innovative methods they employ, may help to develop such understandings. Such work includes explorations of children’s autonomy in different spaces, and the importance of the everyday sensory, embodied and affective dimensions of children’s and young people’s spatial experience and place-making. This work also rejoins recent considerations of children’s emotional geographies (Blazek and Windram-Geddes, 2013).
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© 2015 Sarah Wilson
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Wilson, S. (2015). Young People’s Emotional and Sensory Experiences of ‘Getting By’ in Challenging Circumstances. In: Blazek, M., Kraftl, P. (eds) Children’s Emotions in Policy and Practice. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137415608_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137415608_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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