Lorraine van Blerk

Children's Migration as a Household/Family Strategy: Coping With AIDS in Lesotho and Malawi

This article examines the diverse ways in which southern African households/families employ childrens migration as a strategy to enable them to cope with the impacts of HIV/AIDS. Based on qualitative research with both guardians and migrant children, it explores how decisions are made concerning where children should live. Such decisions are aimed at both meeting childrens needs and also using their capacities in meeting wider household needs. Hence strategies adopted are often compromises, based on the sense of obligation of individual relatives, household resources and needs, the perceived needs and capabilities of children, and childrens own preferences.

Negotiating spatial identities: mobile perspectives on street life in uganda

Previous geographical research with street children has principally focused on their micro-geographies in the city. This paper draws on nomadic and episodic processes of homeless mobility, to explore street childrens geographies from a wider social, spatial and temporal perspective. By examining street life in Kampala, Uganda as a continued negotiation of public/private and street/non-street locations, the fluid nature of street childrens identity is illustrated. Over time, movement between spaces, such as divergent city niches, institutions, homes and other towns, is often subject to power relations operating in street/non-street spaces with each requiring conformity to a different set of values and behaviours. The paper demonstrates how this results in childrens street identity changing as they move through the street life path.

Children's Experiences of Migration: Moving in the Wake of AIDS in Southern Africa

Despite the recent significance childrens geographies have been afforded within many geographical subdisciplines, their experiences of migration have received relatively little attention. However, children do migrate and their migration is often distinct from that of entire households. In this paper we explore childrens migration in southern Africa within the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, focusing in particular on the impacts of moving house on childrens sociospatial experiences. Migration has consequences for several areas of childrens lives, and the nature of those consequences is shaped by the context within which migration takes place. In southern Africa AIDS is an unavoidable aspect of the sociospatial context, but the impact it has on children varies. This exemplar has wider implications for two areas of geographical research. First, in the paper we advocate the importance of including childrens experiences of migration within culturally informed studies of migration. Second, there is a need for research in childrens geographies to extend beyond the microlevel. We advocate a refocusing of research beyond childrens static relationship to environments to also encompass childrens transient geographies in discussions of their life experiences.

New Street Geographies: The Impact of Urban Governance on the Mobilities of Cape Town’s Street Youth

Street youth have been part of South Africa’s cities since the 1980s, maintaining a visible and mobile presence. Contemporary adaptations to urban governance strategies in Cape Town have resulted in management practices that are creating challenges for street youth’s lives. This paper explores these challenges which have emerged through strategies to clean up the city and are aimed at reducing youth’s visible presence on the streets. Through an examination of street youth’s lives, this paper conceptualises four ways in which their mobilities have changed, dramatically affecting their everyday practices. The paper develops theoretical understandings of street youth’s lives by identifying ‘new’ street geographies. This moves away from current conceptualisations of street children/youth as having a visible presence on the streets and rather expresses street life as hidden and marginalised, pushed into less wealthy parts of the urban landscape. This has significant implications for addressing street children/youth’s needs in policy contexts.Street youth have been part of South Africa’s cities since the 1980s, maintaining a visible and mobile presence. Contemporary adaptations to urban governance strategies in Cape Town have resulted in management practices that are creating challenges for street youth’s lives. This paper explores these challenges which have emerged through strategies to clean up the city and are aimed at reducing youth’s visible presence on the streets. Through an examination of street youth’s lives, this paper conceptualises four ways in which their mobilities have changed, dramatically affecting their everyday practices. The paper develops theoretical understandings of street youth’s lives by identifying ‘new’ street geographies. This moves away from current conceptualisations of street children/youth as having a visible presence on the streets and rather expresses street life as hidden and marginalised, pushed into less wealthy parts of the urban landscape. This has significant implications for addressing street children/youth’s needs in policy contexts.

Berg-en-See street boys: merging street and family relations in Cape Town, South Africa

Despite a wealth of research exploring street childrens lives, this has tended to focus on the micro-scale, rarely drawing connections with wider society. Yet, it is rare for street children to sever all ties with home and this paper explores these connections by taking a relational approach to the production of street life. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research with 12 boys living on the streets in a coastal suburb of Cape Town, the paper identifies that street children are part of powerful inter- and intra-generational relations that connect them to their families: interdependent but sometimes forced and contested. The paper concludes by identifying that street children are not isolated on the street, but rather positioned relationally in between street and family life building relations within and across spatial boundaries. This has implications for the way in which we conceptualise street childrens lives and adds to wider theoretical understandings of childhood as relational.Despite a wealth of research exploring street childrens lives, this has tended to focus on the micro-scale, rarely drawing connections with wider society. Yet, it is rare for street children to sever all ties with home and this paper explores these connections by taking a relational approach to the production of street life. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research with 12 boys living on the streets in a coastal suburb of Cape Town, the paper identifies that street children are part of powerful inter- and intra-generational relations that connect them to their families: interdependent but sometimes forced and contested. The paper concludes by identifying that street children are not isolated on the street, but rather positioned relationally in between street and family life building relations within and across spatial boundaries. This has implications for the way in which we conceptualise street childrens lives and adds to wider theoretical understandings of childhood as relational.

Where we stayed was very bad... : migrant children's perspectives on life in informal rented accommodation in two southern African cities

Most research and initiatives relating to childrens experiences of urban space have focused on the physical environment. Housing policies in Third World countries have also emphasised the provision of physical infrastructure and buildings, and urban aesthetics. In this paper the authors draw on the voices of young informants from Maseru (Lesotho), and Blantyre (Malawi), who, in discussions concerning moving house, chose to talk about social and economic aspects of life in the informal sector rented accommodation that is increasingly characteristic of these and many other African cities. The children offer insight into the peopling of urban space, mapping unruly environments characterised by disorder, gossip, and social contestation, far removed from the hard technocratic spaces imagined by planners. Their observations are important not only because children represent a very large and relatively neglected proportion of African urban dwellers but also because they offer a unique insight into the dynamic character of urban environments. As close observers of adult decisionmaking processes, children are informed commentators on motivations for moving house as well as the impacts of urban environments on their own lives. Not only do the children highlight the inadequacies of the informal private rental sector but they also offer a window onto why it is inadequate.

Joining the conspiracy? Negotiating ethics and emotions in researching (around) AIDS in southern Africa

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is an emotive subject, particularly in southern Africa. Among those who have been directly affected by the disease, or who perceive themselves to be personally at risk, talking about AIDS inevitably arouses strong emotions—amongst them fear, distress, loss and anger. Conventionally, human geography research has avoided engagement with such emotions. Although the ideal of the detached observer has been roundly critiqued, the emphasis in methodological literature on ‘doing no harm’ has led even qualitative researchers to avoid difficult emotional encounters. Nonetheless, research is inevitably shaped by emotions, not least those of the researchers themselves. In this paper, we examine the role of emotions in the research process through our experiences of researching the lives of young AIDS migrants in Malawi and Lesotho. We explore how the context of the research gave rise to the production of particular emotions, and how, in response, we shaped the research, presenting a research agenda focused more on migration than AIDS. This example reveals a tension between universalised ethics expressed through ethical research guidelines that demand informed consent, and ethics of care, sensitive to emotional context. It also demonstrates how dualistic distinctions between reason and emotion, justice and care, global and local are unhelpful in interpreting the ethics of research practice.

The new variant famine hypothesis: moving beyond the household in exploring links between AIDS and food insecurity in southern Africa

A number of southern African countries have experienced food crises during recent years. The fact that the scale of these crises has been disproportionate to the apparent triggers of climatic adversity or production decline has led to the suggestion that they are more closely related to the AIDS pandemic, which is at its most extreme in many of the same countries. This hypothesis, developed by de Waal and Whiteside (2003), has been termed ‘New Variant Famine’(NVF). The New Variant Famine hypothesis is helpful in drawing attention to the effects of AIDS in diminishing both food production and capacity to purchase food, but it focuses more intensely on the household level than many other theories that seek to explain food insecurity, which tend to emphasise the integration of peasants into a capitalist market economy, and the functioning of markets and institutions. The household level focus also characterises much research on the impacts of AIDS. In this article we argue that the effects of AIDS on food security are not confined to the household level, and that an NVF analysis should also consider processes operating within and beyond the household including social relationships, relations of age and gender, colonial inheritance and contemporary national and international political economy. Recognition of these processes and how they interact with AIDS may offer greater scope for political mobilisation rather than technocratic responses.

‘Managing’ Cape Town's street children/youth: the impact of the 2010 World Cup bid on street life in the city of Cape Town

Soccer has often been hailed as a key motivator in rehabilitation and restoration work with young people in difficult circumstances and for overcoming street life. Across much of Africa, the literature identifies many urban public places as play spaces for poor children who have limited alternative access to parks and playgrounds. ‘The street’ has regularly been transformed into a soccer pitch, as a space where children have easy access. Against this backdrop, South Africas success at securing the 2010 World Cup bid, may be viewed as an opportunity to demonstrate the uplifting achievements of team sports for impoverished youth, yet at the same time, is juxtaposed against the removal of young people from the city streets, with little consideration of the impact on their lives. This paper draws on qualitative research with over 50 street children and 30 street youth aged between 10 and 28 from Cape Towns city centre. Using key narratives, it demonstrates how vagrant young people are being excluded from th...Soccer has often been hailed as a key motivator in rehabilitation and restoration work with young people in difficult circumstances and for overcoming street life. Across much of Africa, the literature identifies many urban public places as play spaces for poor children who have limited alternative access to parks and playgrounds. ‘The street’ has regularly been transformed into a soccer pitch, as a space where children have easy access. Against this backdrop, South Africas success at securing the 2010 World Cup bid, may be viewed as an opportunity to demonstrate the uplifting achievements of team sports for impoverished youth, yet at the same time, is juxtaposed against the removal of young people from the city streets, with little consideration of the impact on their lives. This paper draws on qualitative research with over 50 street children and 30 street youth aged between 10 and 28 from Cape Towns city centre. Using key narratives, it demonstrates how vagrant young people are being excluded from the city in an effort to clean up the streets. The paper ends with a consideration of these measures for young peoples lives.

The wider relevance of undertaking research with children

This special edition of Children’s Geographies is the second in a set of two special issues arising from the Emerging Issues in Children’s Geographies conference held at Brunel University in June 2005 (The first issue in this collection appeared in Children’s Geographies, 4 (3)). The conference attracted a wealth of innovative work that sought to build on existing strengths and to stretch current conceptual and methodological developments both within the sub-discipline and through multi-disciplinary engagement. As at the previous Children’s Geographies conference at St. Andrews in 2004 (see the special issue of Children’s Geographies, 5 (3)), many papers sought to deal with novel, thought-provoking, and often complex, methodological questions. It seemed appropriate to bring these papers together as a special collection both for what they can offer others working with children and youth and those working in other sub-disciplines within and beyond Geography. Therefore, in this short introduction we have sought to illuminate the innovation currently taking place in methodological debates within Children’s Geographies and highlight how it might benefit human geography as a whole to draw on these discussions (where they are often currently sidelined). Although Children’s Geographies can be traced back to the 1970s with the pioneering work of Bunge, Golledge, Hart, and Ward, it is only over the last decade or so that the sub-discipline has emerged and reached critical mass. Other sub-disciplines which have developed in human geography over the past thirty years, seeking the emancipation of women and other excluded groups and their inclusion into the academy, have drawn upon their distinctive approaches to engage in, and contribute to, broader debates and dialogue in human geography. Similarly, Holloway and Valentine (2000) stress that one possible feature of Children’s Geographies as an emerging sub-discipline could be to move beyond demonstrating that children have unique and interesting geographies worthy of attention, and to indicate the wider relevance of the children’s geographies to other aspects of geographical research. The contribution that Children’s Geographies has already begun to make in some areas of the discipline is indeed encouraging, particularly where the contribution of children’s role in Children’s Geographies Vol. 6, No. 2, May 2008, 117–119