Skip to main content

Families, Intergenerationality, and Peer Group Relations: Introduction

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Families, Intergenerationality, and Peer Group Relations

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 5))

Abstract

A growing body of research across the social sciences draws attention to the complex geographies of children and young people’s relationships. This chapter provides a critical introduction to the geographies of children’s and young people’s relationships. The notion of “generationings” is developed as a useful concept for understanding the ways in which particular generational positions in a society (e.g., adult/child) are constructed and sustained, rather than taking these positions as natural or unproblematic features of society. The chapter then proceeds in three primary sections based on different types of relationship. First, familial relationships and the home are explored, focusing particularly on family practices, parent/child relations, sibship and other intragenerational relationships within the family, and the concept of negotiated and constrained interdependencies. Second, extrafamilial intergenerational relationships and spaces are explored, focusing on the opportunities for and constraints on intergenerational relationships between children/young people and nonrelated adults. Finally, issues related to children and young people’s friendships, peer group relations, and sexualities are examined, stressing how researching children and young people’s relationships among themselves has much broader significance for understanding wider social processes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alanen, L. (2001). Explorations in generational analysis. In L. Alanen & B. Mayall (Eds.), Conceptualising child-adult relations. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alanen, L., & Mayall, B. (Eds.). (2001). Conceptualising child-adult relations. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnett, J. J. (2007). Emerging adulthood: What is it, and what is it good for? Child Development Perspectives, 1(2), 68–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bacon, K. (2012). Beings in their own right? Exploring children and young people’s sibling and twin relationships in the minority world. Children’s Geographies, 10(3), 307–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U., & Beck-Gernsheim, E. (1995). The normal chaos of love. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, A. (1999). Subcultures or neo-tribes? Rethinking the relationship between youth, style and musical taste. Sociology, 33(3), 599–617.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biggs, S., & Lowenstein, A. (2011). Generational intelligence: A critical approach to age relations. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blazek, M. (2011). Place, children’s friendships, and the formation of gender identities in a Slovak urban neighbourhood. Children’s Geographies, 9(3–4), 285–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowlby, S., McKie, L., Gregory, S., & Macpherson, I. (2010). Interdependency and care over the lifecourse. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brannen, J., Heptinstall, E., & Bhopal, K. (2000). Connecting children: Care and family life in later childhood. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckingham, D. (2011). The material child: Growing up in consumer culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunnell, T., Yea, S., Peake, L., Skelton, T., & Smith, M. (2012). Geographies of friendships. Progress in Human Geography, 36(4), 490–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carol, S. (2014). The intergenerational transmission of intermarriage attitudes and intergroup friendships: The role of Turkish migrant parents. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 40(10), 1550–1571.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carsten, J. (2004). After kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, H. (2015a). Understanding children’s personal lives and relationships. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, K. (2015b). Siblings, stories and the self: The sociological significance of young people’s sibling relationships. Sociology, 49(4), 679–695.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dermott, E., & Seymour, J. (Eds.). (2011). Displaying families. A new conceptual framework for the sociology of family life. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, R., & Weller, S. (2014). Sibling relationships and the construction of young people’s gendered identities over time and in different spaces. Families, Relationships and Societies, 3(2), 185–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, R., Hadfield, L., Lucey, H., & Mauthner, M. (2006). Sibling identity and relationships: Sisters and brothers. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Esser, F., Baader, M., Betz, T., & Hungerland, E. (Eds.). (2016). Reconceptualising agency and childhood: New perspectives in childhood studies. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, B. (2008). Geographies of youth/young people. Geography Compass, 2(5), 1659–1680.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, R. (2012). Sibling caringscapes: Time-space practices of caring within youth-headed households in Tanzania and Uganda. Geoforum, 43(4), 824–835.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finch, J. (2007). Displaying families. Sociology, 41, 65–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finch, J., & Mason, J. (1993). Negotiating family responsibilities. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Furedi, F. (2008). Paranoid parenting. London: Continum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabb, J. (2008). Researching intimacy in families. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gillies, V. (2011). From function to competence: Engaging with the new politics of family. Sociological Research Online, 16(4), 11. http://www.socresonline.org.uk/16/4/11.html

  • Gulløv, E., Palludan, C., & Wentzel Winther, I. (2015). Engaging siblingships. Childhood, 22(4), 506–519.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagestad, G. O., & Uhlenberg, P. (2005). The social separation of old and young: A root of ageism. Journal of Social Issues, 61(2), 343–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hallman, B. C. (Ed.). (2010). Family geographies: The spatiality of families and family life. Oxford: Oxford Unversity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hebdige, D. (1979). Subculture: The meaning of style. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins, P., & Pain, R. (2007). Geographies of age: Thinking relationally. Area, 39(3), 287–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huijsmans, R. (2016). Generationing development: A relational approach to children, youth and development. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • James, A., Jenks, C., & Prout, A. (1998). Theorizing childhood. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamieson, L. (1998). Intimacy: Personal relationships in modern societies. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamieson, L. (2005). Boundaries of intimacy. In L. McKie & S. Cunningham-Burley (Eds.), Families in society: Boundaries and relationships (pp. 189–206). Bristol: The Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, A., & McKee, L. (2003). Theorising childhood and family change. In A. Jensen & L. McKee (Eds.), Children and the changing family: Between transformation and negotiation (pp. 1–14). London: RoutledgeFalmer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kallio, K. (2015). Intergenerational recognition as political practice. In R. M. Vanderbeck & N. Worth (Eds.), Intergenerational space (pp. 139–154). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Konstantoni, K. (2012). Children’s peer relationships and social identities: Exploring cases of young children’s agency and complex interdependencies from the Minority World. Children’s Geographies, 10(3), 337–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonard, M. (2015). The sociology of children, childhood and generation. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, M. W., & Wigen, K. (1997). The myth of continents: A critique of metageography. Oakland: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Livingstone, S. (2009). Children and the Internet. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Livingstone, S., & Bober, M. (2004). UK children go online: Surveying the experiences of young people and their parents. London: London School of Political Science. Available from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/395/

  • Loebach, J., & Gilliland, J. (2016). Neighbourhood play on the endangered list: Examining patterns in children’s local activity and mobility using GPS monitoring and qualitative GIS. Children’s Geographies, 1, 1–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maffesoli, M. (1996). The time of the tribes: The decline of individualism in mass society. London: Sage. [Originally published in French, 1988].

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason, J. (2004). Personal narratives, relational selves: Residential histories in the living and telling. Sociological Review, 52(2), 162–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mason, J. (2008). Tangible affinities and the real life fascination of kinship. Sociology, 42, 29–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayall, B. (2002). Towards a sociology for childhood. Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, I., & Punch, S. (2009). ‘Barter’, ‘deals’, ‘bribes’ and ‘threats’: Exploring sibling interactions. Childhood, 16(1), 49–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, I., Punch, S., Dorrer, N., & Emond, R. (2010). “You don’t have to be watched to make your toast”: Surveillance and food practices within residential care for young people. Surveillance and Society, 7(3), 287–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, I., Dorrer, N., Punch, S., & Emond, R. (2011). “I know we can’t be a family, but as close as you can get”: Displaying families within an institutional context. In E. Dermott & J. Seymour (Eds.), Displaying families: A new concept for the sociology of family life (pp. 175–194). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Medrich, E., Roizen, J., Rubin, V., & Buckley, S. (1982). The serious business of growing up. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melville, J., & Hatton-Yeo, A. (2015). Intergenerational shared spaces in the UK context. In R. M. Vanderbeck & N. Worth (Eds.), Intergenerational space (pp. 50–64). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, D. (1996). Family connections: An introduction to family studies. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, D. (2011). Locating “family practices”. Sociological Research Online, 16(4), 14. http://www.socresonline.org.uk/16/4/14.html

  • Morris-Roberts, K. (2004). Girls’ friendships, ‘distinctive individuality’ and socio-spatial practices of (dis)identification. Children’s Geographies, 2(2), 237–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Opie, I., & Opie, P. (1959). The lore and language of schoolchildren. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oswell, D. (2013). The agency of children: From family to global human rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Panelli, R., Punch, S., & Robson, E. (Eds.). (2007). Global perspectives on rural childhood and youth: Young rural lives. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Percy-Smith, B., & Matthews, H. (2001). Tyrannical spaces: Young people, bullying and urban neighbourhoods. Local Environment, 6(1), 49–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Punch, S. (2001). Negotiating autonomy: Childhoods in rural Bolivia. In L. Alanen & B. Mayall (Eds.), Conceptualising child-adult relations. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Punch, S. (2003). Childhoods in the Majority World: Miniature adults or tribal children? Sociology, 37(2), 277–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Punch, S. (2005). The generationing of power: A comparison of child-parent and sibling relations in Scotland. Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, 10, 169–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Punch, S. (2015). Youth transitions and migration: Negotiated and constrained interdependencies within and across generations. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(2), 262–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Punch, S. (2016a). Exploring children’s agency across Majority and Minority World contexts. In F. Esser, M. Baader, T. Betz, & E. Hungerland (Eds.), Reconceptualising agency and childhood: New perspectives in childhood studies (pp. 183–196). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Punch, S. (2016b). Cross-world and cross-disciplinary dialogue: A more integrated, global approach to childhood studies. Global Studies of Childhood, 6(3), 352–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Punch, S., & McIntosh, I. (2014). “Food is a funny thing within residential childcare”: Intergenerational relationships and food practices in residential care. Childhood, 21(1), 72–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Punch, S., & Sugden, F. (2013). Work, education and out-migration among children and youth in upland Asia: Changing patterns of labour and ecological knowledge in an era of globalisation. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, 18(3), 255–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Punch, S., & Tisdall, K. (Eds.). (2014). Children and young people’s relationships: Learning across majority and minority worlds. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabain-Jamin, J., Maynard, A., & Greenfield, P. (2003). Implications of sibling caregiving for sibling relations and teaching interactions in two cultures. Ethos, 31(2), 204–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ribbens McCarthy, J. (2012). The powerful relational language of ‘family’: Togetherness, belonging, and personhood. Sociological Review, 60(1), 68–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riley, M. W., & Riley, J. W. (2000). Age integration conceptual and historical background. The Gerontologist, 40(3), 266–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogoff, B., Morelli, G. A., & Chavajay, P. (2010). Children’s integration in communities and segregation from people of differing ages. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(4), 431–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silva, E., & Smart, C. (eds). (1999). The New Family? London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skelton, T., & Valentine, G. (Eds.). (1997). Cool places: Geographies of youth cultures. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smart, C. (2007). Personal life. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, P. K., Mahdavi, J., Carvalho, M., Fisher, S., Russell, S., & Tippett, N. (2008). Cyberbullying: Its nature and impact in secondary school pupils. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49(4), 376–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, Y., Warin, J., Lewis, C., & Langford, W. (2002). Intimate talk between parents and their teenage children: Democratic openness or covert control? Sociology, 30, 965–983.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tarrant, A. (2015). (Grand)parental care practices and affective intergenerational encounters using information communication technologies. In R. M. Vanderbeck & N. Worth (Eds.), Intergenerational space (pp. 286–299). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thang, L. L. (2015). Creating an intergenerational contact zone: Encounters in public spaces within Singapore’s public housing neighbourhoods. In R. M. Vanderbeck & N. Worth (Eds.), Intergenerational space (pp. 17–32). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, M. E. (2005). Girls, consumption space and the contradictions of hanging out in the city. Social & Cultural Geography, 6(4), 587–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, M. E. (2011). Multicultural girlhood: Racism, sexuality, and the conflicted spaces of American education. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, G. (2008). The ties that bind: Towards geographies of intimacy. Geography Compass, 2(6), 2097–2110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, G. (2015). Intergenerationality and prejudice. In R. M. Vanderbeck & N. Worth (Eds.), Intergenerational space (pp. 155–168). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanderbeck, R., & Johnson, J. (2000). ‘That’s the only place where you can hang out’: Urban young people and the space of the mall. Urban Geography, 21(1), 5–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanderbeck, R. M. (2007). Intergenerational geographies: Age relations, segregation and re-engagements. Geography Compass, 1(2), 200–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanderbeck, R. M. (2010). Kompetentteja sosiaalisia toimijoita? Pohdintoja lapsuuden tutkimuksen ‘aikuisista’. [Competent social agents? Reflections on the ‘adult’ of childhood studies]. In P. K. Kallio, A. Ritala-Koskinen, & N. Rutanen (Eds.), Missä lapsuutta tehdää? [Where is childhood made?] (pp. 33–50). Helsinki: Finnish Youth Research Network, the Finnish Society of Childhood Studies, and the Childhood and Family Research Unit of the University of Tampere.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanderbeck, R.M. (2017, in press). Intergenerational geographies in theory and practice. In Skelton, T. and Aitken, S. (Eds.) Establishing Geographies of Children and Young People. Volume 1 of the series Major Reference Work on Geographies of Children and Young People Tracey Skelton (Ed.). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanderbeck, R. M., & Worth, N. (Eds.). (2015). Intergenerational space. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Vliet, W. (2011). Intergenerational cities: A framework for policies and programs. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 9(4), 348–365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weeks, J., Heapy, B., & Donovan, C. (2001). Same sex intimacies. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Weller, S. (2013). Who cares? Exploring the shifting nature of care and caring practices in sibling relationships. In C. Rogers & S. Weller (Eds.), Critical approaches to care: Understanding caring relations, identities and cultures (pp. 160–170). Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Windzio, M. (2012). Integration of immigrant children into inter-ethnic friendship networks: The role of “intergenerational openness”. Sociology, 46(2), 258–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wridt, P. (2004). Block politics. Children’s Geographies, 2(2), 199–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Samantha Punch .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this entry

Cite this entry

Punch, S., Vanderbeck, R.M. (2017). Families, Intergenerationality, and Peer Group Relations: Introduction. In: Punch, S., Vanderbeck, R., Skelton, T. (eds) Families, Intergenerationality, and Peer Group Relations. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 5. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-92-7_15-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-92-7_15-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-4585-92-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-4585-92-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics