The Anthropocene is, firstly, a discourse of the earth systems sciences. However, if humans - in all their historical, cultural, social, economic and political diversity - are differently implicated in the emergence and consequences of the Anthropocene, then Childhood and Youth Studies must critically engage with, and contribute to, debates about these planetary wide changes and their consequences for children and young people. Well-being, resilience, and enterprise are keywords in many policy, academic and community discourses about contemporary populations of children and young people around the globe. Most often these key-words take the form of psycho-biological based encouragements for young people to care for their own physical, mental and social health and well-being, to develop their resilience, and to become enterprising in a world that is taken-for-granted as being challenging and disruptive. This collection brings a multi-disciplinary focus to discussions about children and young people's well-being, resilience, and enterprise to develop new ways of troubling these keywords at a time when planetary systems - atmospheric, oceanic, terran, capitalist - are in crisis.
Peter Kraftl is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Birmingham, UK. Peter Kelly is Head of UNESCO UNEVOC at RMIT University, Australia, and Professor of Education in the School of Education. Diego Carbajo Padilla is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU). Anoop Nayak is Professor in Social and Cultural Geography at Newcastle University, UK. Seth Brown is a Lecturer at RMIT University, Australia and a Program Leader, Exploring Education Ecologies of Well-being, Resilience and Enterprise at UNEVOC@RMIT. Rosalyn Black is Senior Lecturer in Education at Deakin University, Australia.
Part 1 Plastics, Soils, Water, Weather and Waste: The Materialities of Childhoods in the Anthropocene Chapter 1: Plastic childhoods (and more): visceralities, vortices, vectors, virtualities Peter Kraftl Chapter 2: Resilience as more-than-human Mindy Blaise, Jo Pollitt, Jane Merewether, and Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw Chapter 3: Soil as Kin: Unearthing Old Ways Aviva Reed Chapter 4: Living in the Anthropocene Adrianne Bacelar de Castro and Sarah Hennessy Part 2 Temporalities and Spaces: Young People's Anthropocenes Chapter 5: Blasted Places: Smog, Steel and Stigma in a Post-industrial Town Anoop Nayak Chapter 6: The net of heaven is vast, vast...': Rethinking a philosophy for youth work in the Anthropocene Kerry Montero Chapter 7: The Anthropocene and the two-faced responsibility of young people in the European welfare regimes Kari Paakkunainen, Juhani Saari, and Juri Mykkanen Chapter 8: Young People and the Anthropocene: Futures, Past and Present? Peter Kelly Part 3 Knowing and Naming Young People and the Anthropocene Chapter 9: Hacking the Political Economy of Youth Shane Duggan Chapter 10: Youth in/of the Anthropocene: Kindred Ecologies for a Digital Warming World Kate Tilleczek Chapter 11: Is there such a thing as youth in the Anthropocene? Michael Marder Coda Martxel Mariskal
