Catherine Waite

Children's geographies is an active and well-established sub-discipline of the wider subject of geography. Yet, despite the burgeoning interest in the geographies of sport, to date very little work has been done that brings these two fields together. This chapter will review the existing research that can be classified as children's sports geographies; research which falls broadly into four categories. First, geographers have investigated the spaces of children's physical activity, both in terms of informal play spaces and organised sport. Second, studies have explored the relationship between socio-economic status and access to sport and coaching. Third, there is a body of research that has considered issues relating to physical education in school settings. Lastly, geographers have developed research from a feminist perspective to shine a light on issues relating to children's bodies, gender, and (dis)ability in a sports context. From this summary, the implications for sports coaching will be discussed, as well as providing suggestions for future directions and opportunities for contributions from research in the field of children's sports geography.

This paper acknowledges that geographical fieldwork and fieldtrips can be deeply stressful, anxiety‐inducing, troubling, miserable, hard and exclusionary for many colleagues, students and pupils. Building on the critical insights of Bracken and Mawdsley's (Area, 36, 2004) ‘Muddy Glee’ we empirically extend disciplinary reflections on fieldwork, drawing on qualitative data from research with UK university‐based Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES) academics who self‐identify as having mental health conditions which substantially affect their daily lives. These data prompt reflection on the nature and experience of fieldwork in two ways. First, they require acknowledgment of fieldwork as not just ‘muddy’, widening disciplinary imaginaries of fieldwork accessibility to encompass marginalities in/of Human Geography fieldwork practice. Second, contrary to pervasive disciplinary idealisations, these data demand recognition that fieldwork and fieldtrips are not necessarily gleeful but can be sites of intense latent anxiety and intersectional marginality. They evidence how fieldwork can often be experienced as sites of anxiety, isolation, marginalisation, and often silent or hidden distress. These data are not easy to read, and we argue that they require us to widen our disciplinary senses of what fieldwork is like. In conclusion we offer some prompts for reflection to think‐with this unease.

In this article we examine the latest chapter in the relationship between the state and the voluntary sector in the UK. We present an analysis of the UK Government’s ‘National Citizen Service’ (NCS) scheme and map the landscape of youth services over the past decade. Drawing on interview data with delivery providers of the programme, and key government and policy actors, we explore the new geographies NCS has created and reflect on the wider implications of this programme in austerity Britain.

This article progresses debates about how the process of international migration is operationalized. With a focus on the geographical concept of scale this article explores how individuals, organizations and policies interact to determine the characteristics of a migration flow. Using a case study of the temporary migration of English professional cricketers moving seasonally to Australia, it is revealed that there is a complex nexus of actors and institutions at the micro-, meso- and macro-scales that influence migration and can have contradictory impacts on migratory activity. Drawing on interviews with current and former English professional cricketers and a wide range of intermediaries it is shown how migration can both be enabled and constrained by different individuals and institutions in the home and destination context. The article contends that a multi-scalar approach is vital to more fully understand how migration flows are operationalized. The findings are pertinent to wider academic debates on the enablement, constraint and growing regulation of sports labour migration and skilled migration more broadly.

This article explores and expands debates on the geographies of social cohesion and encounter, specifically in relation to young people and informal citizenship training. Three questions drive our agenda in this paper. First, how do certain youth spaces get enrolled into wider political discourses, functioning as geographical expressions of government visions to create a political legacy? Second, how are these spaces engineered and operate on-the-ground? Finally, how do young people understand their experiences of such spaces? To address these questions, we use the example of ‘National Citizen Service’ – a youth programme operating in England and Northern Ireland – to raise critical questions about the wider politics of spaces of informal education and attempts by the state to ‘make’ citizens and future neighbours. The article examines the rationale for this growing scheme, targeted at 15–17 year olds and designed to foster a ‘more cohesive, responsible and engaged society’. Drawing on original fieldwork with key architects, stakeholders and young people, we analyse the narratives that underlie NCS and its expansion – specifically around social cohesion and citizenship education. We explore the idea of ‘social mix’ as one of NCS’ guiding principles and its place as part of state narratives about the ‘Big Society’ and ‘Shared Society’.