4 Changing environments
It is evident from all the reasons discussed in this course so far that children’s environments are changing and that, for some children, such changes are disastrous and will have extremely damaging consequences on their lives. Geographers have long looked at the interrelationships between people and their environments and how they change in relation to each other. More recently, some human geographers have started to focus specifically on childhood. ‘Children’s geographies’ is a fast growing and vibrant sub-field of geography and at the forefront of thinking in this new field is Professor Peter Kraftl from Birmingham University, who you came across in the previous section.
In the sections that follow you will read extracts from a chapter written by Peter Kraftl. The chapter, which accompanies the Open University module E232 Exploring Childhood and Youth, has been specially commissioned by The Open University and examines how children have responded to their changing environments, including climate change, and how this differs in different places.
