Figurations of Childhood

Middle-Class Topologies in Nairobi and Berlin
Auflage - Neueauflage
ISBN: 978-3-8376-7964-9
Verlag: Transcript Verlag

Buch, Englisch, Band 10, 342 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 628 g

Reihe: Re-Figuration von Räumen

1. Why did you choose this topic?

I chose to work on the topic of intergenerational spatial justice in cities because the rights of children in cities are not debated enough, and cities continue to be planned largely without regard for the positions and opinions of children.

2. What new perspectives does your book offer?

The book offers a transnational perspective on urban change through the lens of middle-class childhoods and, as such, adds to existing research on children's spatial relations from a global perspective, uniquely emphasizing class inequalities. Furthermore, the book's language encompasses academic text, playwriting, auto-ethnographic notes and poetry, as well as mental maps, photography and field drawings, inviting non-academic readers to explore urban childhood inequalities.

3. What makes your topic relevant for current research debates?

The topic of intergenerational spatial justice is highly relevant to critical debates on child-friendly urban planning, ageing cities, the urban commons, and the growing securitisation of cities.

4. Choose one person you would like to discuss your book with!

I would like to discuss my book with children living in cities across the planet.

5. Your book summary in one sentence:

It argues how neoliberal urban planning and bourgeois values have confined urban childhoods since 1960 and calls for intergenerational spatial justice.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mock, Claudia

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunst, allgemein Kunsttheorie, Kunstphilosophie

Über Autor(innen)

Mock, Claudia
Claudia Mock is a Research Fellow at the Georg-Simmel Centre for Urban Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where she lectures in the Department of Social Sciences. Between 2018 and 2025, she held several positions at the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre ‘Re-Figuration of Space’ (CRC 1265) at Technische Universität Berlin, where she completed her PhD in Sociology. In 2018, she was a Visiting Fellow at the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, collaborating with scholars at the University of Nairobi. Her research focuses on the sociology of space, children’s geographies and global urban inequalities.