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
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
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
Key concepts
1) Place and the geographical
imagination
2) Narrative
3) London
4)Young People’s Geographies
1) 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)
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)
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).
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)
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
*The geographical imagination is part ‘ofsociety’,
the
common experience of man’ (Cosgrove 1979)
and ‘a persistent and universal
Princeimagination is a two-fold concept,
*Theinstinct’
geographical
(1962, quoted in Johnston et
al 2000,both
pagehow
298),
meaning
we imagine the world, and ‘how we
with all people(s) constantlyrepresent
constructing
it to and
others ‘ (Balderstone 2006, page 22).
reconstructing place(s) in their
minds.
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).
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.
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)
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 )
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.
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
Thank you for listening
Any questions, comments or
suggestions?
Or…
…Tell me about your experiences of
London…
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
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*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 131134
*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