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Space, Place, and Environment pp 401–420Cite as

The Bedroom: A Missing Space within Geographies of Children and Young People

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Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 3))

Abstract

For the most part, bedrooms have escaped the attention of those concerned with exploring the geographies of children and young people. Reflecting the scarcity of work on children’s and young people’s domestic geographies more generally, geographical research on bedrooms is all but nonexistent. Divided into four analytical sections, this chapter problematizes the absence of the bedroom within geographies of children and young people and critically evaluates the lack of subdisciplinary research on the space. After a discussion of the significance of the bedroom within the lives of children and young people, the chapter reflects upon the domestication of childhood, the close association of children with the home, and the paradox that research tends to focus upon children’s and young people’s relationships with public spaces rather than private spaces. Next, it considers the difficulties of conducting research on and within the domestic sphere; it argues that these difficulties, a propensity for empirical work, and the preference for a direct engagement with children and young people have contributed to the dearth of research on both homes and bedrooms within the subdiscipline. The chapter subsequently reviews a range of bedroom-based work from outside geographies of children and young people. It concludes by suggesting that such work illustrates the potential for similar studies within geography and the possibility for collaborative research with other disciplines of the social sciences.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. London, UK

    Jamie Adcock

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  1. Jamie Adcock
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Correspondence to Jamie Adcock .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Education, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Karen Nairn

  2. School of GEES, University of Birmingham , Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Peter Kraftl

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Adcock, J. (2016). The Bedroom: A Missing Space within Geographies of Children and Young People. In: Nairn, K., Kraftl, P. (eds) Space, Place, and Environment. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 3. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-044-5_6

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