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Young People's Narratives and Geographies of London: Exploring the Geographical Imagination

This presentation by Lauren Hammond, PhD Student, explores the significance of young people's narratives in understanding their geographies and imagination of London. The central argument is that young people have their own perspectives of the city, which are often neglected in adult representations. The presentation discusses key concepts such as place, narrative, and the geographical imagination, and explores the link between narrative and place. The significance of this research for geography educators is emphasized. The methodology and analysis of young people's narratives are also discussed, with an opportunity for questions, comments, and suggestions.

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Young People's Narratives and Geographies of London: Exploring the Geographical Imagination

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  1. What do young people’s narratives reveal about their geographies and imagination of London? Lauren Hammond PhD Student at the Institute of Education and Head of Geography

  2. Outline of the presentation *Central argument *Key concepts *Linking narrative and place through the geographical imagination *Significance *Methodology and analysis *Opportunity for questions, comments and suggestions

  3. Central argument *Our understanding of cities has nearly always emerged through adult representations and geographical imaginations. Massey (2008, page 24) asks ‘whose geography?’ *Young people have their own understanding and views of the world (Skelton and Valentine, 1998; Freeman and Tranter, 2011; Ward 1990). *By failing to explore young people’s perspectives of the city, then we are neglecting to explore and discuss a whole section of the populations’ experience and understanding of place – significance for geography educators

  4. Key concepts • Place and the geographical imagination 2) Narrative 3) London 4)Young People’s Geographies

  5. Place and the geographical imagination • *The definition and conceptualization of place is much debated (Merriman, 2012) • *The geographical imagination is key to understanding how place is constructed and understood: • *The geographical imagination is ‘how we imagine the world to be, and how we represent it to others’ Balderstone (1996, page 22) • *How people imagine the world is constructed by a mixture of sense of place (born from direct and lived experiences of a place), and the narratives and mediated images that people are exposed to about a place (Beneker et al, 2010) • *(The Geographical imagination has the power) ‘to bring material and mental worlds into closer conjunction, to connect the mythical and the mundane.’ (Daniels, 2011 page 182)

  6. 2) Narrative *We exist in and live our lives ‘’in’ and ‘through’ stories’ Goodson et al (2010, page1) *Narrative reflects and imitates life (Bruner, 2004) *Speech (and, I argue narrative) is one of the fundamental methods of communication in our world; it binds people with other people, and with their environment (Tuan, 2012, page 27) *The study of narratives is the ‘study of the ways humans experience the world’ (Connelly and Clandinin, 1990, page 2)

  7. 3) London *London’s population was 7,753,600 in 2009, which ‘is 12.5 per cent of the UK population living on just 0.6 per cent of the land area.’ (Greater London Authority (GLA) report ‘Focus on London 2010’, page 3). *‘He or she would never know all of the city thoroughly; there would always be a secret London in the very act of its growth..’ Ackroyd (2000, page 586) *London is an unequal city (Hall, 2007; Hamnett, 2005; Massey, 2008) *Not only does London vary internally, but it also has a different character from the Rest of the UK (RUK), (Massey, 2008; Hall, 2007).

  8. 4)Young People’s Geographies *Children’s lived experience of places has not yet been fully researched (Freeman, 2010). As children both inhabit our city and embody the future, their voices should be heard within the city. *In a world that is increasingly urbanized, not only are young people increasingly invisible in public places in urban areas in the UK, but also that their voices are invisible from the debates that surround them, with ‘the child and the city (being) commonly seen as incompatible entities’ Bavidge (2006, page 323). *‘Despite the widespread promotion of children to plan and carry out their own research in recent years, the potential for young people’s knowledge to impact on adult agenda’s and policy arena’s remains less than certain’ Porter et al (2012, page 131)

  9. Linking narrative and place through the geographical imagination The city is both a place and an arena of representation (Amin and Graham, 1997) How a person conceptualizes a place is directly linked to their context. Cresswell (1996, page 12) argues that ‘society produces space and space reproduces society’, *The geographical imagination is part ‘of the common experience of man’ (Cosgrove 1979) and ‘a persistent and universal instinct’ Prince (1962, quoted in Johnston et al 2000, page 298), with all people(s) constantly constructing and reconstructing place(s) in their minds. *The geographical imagination is a two-fold concept, meaning both how we imagine the world, and ‘how we represent it to others ‘ (Balderstone 2006, page 22). Integral to this concept is the idea of dialogue and narrative, as how we discuss and represent our ideas, and how different people(s) share their imaginations of place(s), help to build our imaginations of place(s) (Nayak, 2011).

  10. It is through narratives that we attempt to make sense of our imaginations of place(s) and working with young people to explore their imaginations of place, will help them to deconstruct their world and understand the process of place making.

  11. Significance *The sheer volume of people living in an urban environment – it was estimated at 3 billion people in 2003 and is expected to rise to 5 billion by 2030 (United Nations 2005) – how do young people experience and imagine the city? *Research in London can be used as a study of a unique place, but also as a methodology for how young people imagine and narrate their experience of place in specific spatio-temporal contexts *An opportunity to explore both the philosophy and construction of a city and how this impacts on everyday life for a specific group (Lefebvre) *How narrative and speech reflects a symbolic exchange of power (Bourdieu, 2012)

  12. Methodology *‘Storytelling and geography’ group - we do not read or learn in isolation, but we do it through the process of discussion with others (Yap, 2011). In school for practical reasons (I teach full time) 1) Semi-structured interviews which explore students life stories (recorded and transcribed) based on Goodson (2010) methodology 2) Participants map their geographies with ‘London’ as a starting point 3) Semi-structured interview, based on their maps 4) Participants share their stories. Their geographies are contextualized with newspaper articles photos etc (based on Goodson, 2013 process of triangulation, where life stories, documentary resources and other testimonies are considered of equal weighting in the creation of a life narrative)

  13. Methodology 5) Participants annotate their maps with where their narratives came from 6) A semi-structured interview in which participants are asked to reflect upon where their imaginations of the city come from 7)Feedback from participants (what have they learnt about their imagination of London? Has storytelling been a useful methodology form them to explore this?) 8) An art and narrative show at the end to reflect the action component of the study – participants voices should be heard *The fact that there are several sessions, over a period of time reflects the long-term relationship aspect (Squire, 2011) of experience centered research which enables the researcher to expand the contexts of the study with the participant.

  14. Analysis Is still being planned.. I am will follow Goodson et al (2010, page 12-13) strategy of using themes of analysis, where they focus on the following 5 areas, analyzing each individuals narrative: *Narrative intensity – the length, amount of words and ‘depth’ of the narrative and whether it is ‘more or less elaborative’ *Descriptive or Analysis and evaluation? –are the stories describing the life and relationship to place, or analyzing and interpreting it? *Plot and emplotment - the narrators understanding of their lives and learning from it *Chronological or thematic –how young people express their narrratives *Theorised – whether the narrator attempts to theorise life

  15. Thank you for listening Any questions, comments or suggestions? Or… …Tell me about your experiences of London…

  16. Bibliography *Ackroyd, P. (2000) London The Biography Chatto & Windus: London *Amin, A. Graham, S. (1997) ‘The Ordinary City’ in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 22(4) pages 411-429 *Balderstone, D. (2006) ‘What’s the point of learning geography?’ In Secondary geography Handbook (Balderstone eds) Geographical Association: Sheffield *Bavidge, J. (2006) ‘Stories in Space: The Geographies of Children’s Literature’ in Children’s Geographies 4(3) Pages 319-330 *Beneker, T.Sanders, R. Tani, S. Taylor, L. (2010) ‘Picturing the City: Young Peoples Representations of Urban Environments’ in Children’s Geographies 8(2) *Bruner, J. (2004) ‘Life as Narrative’ in Social Research 71(3) pages 691-710 *Connelly, F.M Clandinin, D.J. (1990) “Stories of Experience and Narrative Inquiry ‘ in Educational Research 19(5) pages 2-14 *Cresswell, T. (1996) In Place Out of Place – Geography, Ideology and Transgression University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis *Daniels, S. (2011) ‘Geographical Imagination’ in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 36(2) pages 182-187 *Freeman, C. (2010) ‘Children’s neighbourhoods, social centres to ‘terra incognita’’ in Children’s Geographies, 8(2) pages 157-176 *Freeman, C. Tranter, P. (2011) Children and Their Urban Environment Changing Worlds Earthscan Ltd: London *Greater London Authority (2010) Focus on London - Population and Migration available at: http://data.london.gov.uk/datastore/applications/focus-london-population-and-migration (accessed on: 19th February 2012) *Goodson, I. Biesta,M.T. Adair, N. (2010) Narrative Learning Routledge: Abingdon *Goodson, I. Gill, S.R. (2011) Narrative Pedagogy; Life History and Learning Peter Lang Publishers Ltd: New York *Goodson, I. (2013) Developing Narrative Theory: Life Histories and Personal Representations Routledge: Abingdon *Hall, P. (2007) London Voices: London Lives – Tales from a Working Capital Policy Press: Bristol *Hamnett, C. (2005) Unequal City Routledge: Abingdon *Johnston, R.J. Gregory, D. Pratt, G, Watts, M. (2001) The Dictionary of Human Geography Blackwell: Oxford *Lefebvre, H. (2012) The Production of Space Blackwell: Oxford *Massey, D. (2008) World City Polity Press: Cambridge *Merriman, P. (2012) ‘Human geography without time-space’ in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 37(1) pages 13-27 *Nayak (2011) ‘Geography, Race and Emotions: Social and Cultural Intersections’ in Social and Cultural Geography 12(6) pages 548-562 *Porter, G. Townsend, J. Hampshire, K. (2012) ‘Children and Young People as Producers of Knowledge’ in Children’s Geographies 10,3, page 131-134 *Skelton, T. Valentine, G. (1998) Cool Places; Geographies of Youth Cultures Rutledge: London *Squire, M. (2011) ‘Experience-Centred and Culturally-Orientated Approaches to Narrative’ in Andrews, M. Squire, C. Tamboukou, M. (2011) Doing Narrative Research SAGE: London *Tuan, Y.F. (2012) Humanist Geography: An Individuals Search for Meaning George F Thompson Publishing: Virginia *United Nations (2005) Population Challenges and Development Goals available at: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/pop_challenges/Population_Challenges.pdf (accessed on 4th January 2013) *Ward, C. (1990) The Child in the City Bedford Square Press: London *Yap, E.X.Y. (2011) ‘Readers in Conversation: A Politics of Reading in Literary Geographies’ in Social and Cultural Geography 12(7) pages 739-806

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