This article offers a discussion of the ways in which institutional ethical frameworks can obstruct and obfuscate research with children and young people at the very same time as they attempt to protect these subjects of research. The article shows that key aspects of institutional ethical guidelines and regulations fly in the face of contemporary social studies of childhood, of which geography constitutes a significant part. The increasing recognition of the competence of children and young people combined with their right to participate, as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, has not yet been adequately integrated within institutional ethics frameworks. This places those conducting research with children and young people in an invidious position of trying to follow their political respect for the rights of their research participants at the same time as meeting the strictures of research practice defined by their institutional ethics committees. Examples of the author's own experience, plans for future research and actual research practice with young people will be used throughout to explore the tensions between ethics, competence and participation.

Friendships are an important part of what makes us, and our geographies of various kinds, human. We consider how geographers can contribute to efforts to afford friendship greater prominence in the social sciences. The main part of the article considers three strands of work on friendship that push the boundaries of research in human geography: (1) geographies of affect/emotion and the ontological construction of the human; (2) children’s and young people’s geographies and the (re)production of social ordering; and (3) geographies of mobility and transnationalism in a world of increased human spatial movement and social relations at a distance.

This article challenges the absence of young people from Political Geography. It shows how in many parts of the world young people are in an in-between space politically and legally. This article suggests that the geographically divergent liminal positioning of young people within political-legal structures and institutional practices is what makes them extremely interesting political subjects. I argue for a deconstruction of the generally accepted binary of capital P Politics and lower case p politics. Using an illustration from a non-Western geography, I argue that young people can do more than act politically in the interstices of this binary; they can in fact meld and blend both elements. Taking young people seriously may well create new definitions of the political and demonstrate other ways of conceptualising geopolitics and political geographies.

In late modernity there has been a shift in the ways that individuals relate to society, in which traditional ideas, expectations, and hierarchies are being reworked. Released from the constraints and social norms of tradition, individuals, it is argued, are now freer to choose between a range of options in the pursuit of their own happiness. Notably, these social changes have been understood to provide more opportunities for lesbians and gay men to ‘come out’—disclose their sexuality and live the lifestyle of their choice. Coming out is often implicitly discussed in academic literatures as an individual decision, and the consequences of coming out are also usually explored in relation to the personal narratives of the individual who has disclosed a lesbian and gay sexuality. To date, little attention has been paid to the actual processes through which sexual dissidents negotiate their identities with others, and to the consequences of such disclosures for those who are close to them or share their lives in various ways. In this paper we address this omission by focusing on young people's experiences of coming out with, and in, families of origin. We begin by examining what is at stake in the decision whether to come out or not by examining the role that families of origin play in young people's lives. We then explore how the process of coming out is actually negotiated within different families. Finally, we consider the ‘outcomes’ of these choices. In doing so we contribute to research on geographies of sexualities, geographies of the ‘family’, youth transitions, and the emerging field of social studies of emotions.

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In this article we examine the ways in which young D/deaf British people express and experience their identities and how their D/deafness intersects with other self-identifications. We examine the controversial debates within D/deaf communities, cultures and studies about D/deafness as disability versus D/deafness as linguistic minority. We explore the ways in which 'Deaf ' and 'deaf ' definitions and identities contradict, overlap, coexist and compete. At the same time we discuss the problems with binary constructions of deaf/hearing or Deaf/deaf for capturing the full experiences of young D/deaf people's lives. We consider the reasons why there is such a dearth of research within the social sciences which focuses on young D/deaf people's lives and discuss the complexities of conducting this type of research. Young D/deaf people's articulations of identities and cultural experiences are presented. We conclude with suggestions for researchers and also with a hope that the current D/deaf challenges towards the hearing world and deaf challenges within the Deaf world may bring future possibilities and opportunities for D/deaf young people in the U.K.Dans cet article, nous étudierons comment les jeunes malentendants britanniques expriment et ressentent leurs identités et comment leur S/surdité coexiste avec leurs autres identifications. Nous examinerons les points qui font débat au sein des communautés de personnes S/sourdes, leur culture et comparerons les études sur la S/surdité en tant qu' handicap à celles sur la S/surdité en tant que minorité linguistique. Nous analyserons en quoi les définitions de la S/surdité et les identités entrent en conflit, se chevauchent, coexistent et rivalisent. En même temps, nous discuterons des problèmes concernant les constructions binaires telles que sourd/entendant ou Sourd/sourd utilisées pour rendre compte des expériences de la vie de jeunes S/sourds. Nous considérerons les raisons pour lesquelles il y a, dans le domaine des sciences humaines, si peu de recherches portant sur la vie des jeunes S/sourds et discuterons des difficultés inhérentes à ce type de recherche. Les articulations de l'identité ainsi que les expériences culturelles de jeunes S/sourds seront présentées. Nous conclurons par des suggestions aux chercheurs en espérant que les défis à relever, aussi bien à l'égard du monde entendant qu'au sein même des communauté de S/sourds, puissent ouvrir de nouvelles perspectives et contribuer à l'amélioration de la vie des jeunes S/sourds au Royaume-Uni.

There is a mobility turn in the social sciences affecting how we scrutinise, research and represent the city. In recent scholarship on mobilities, global human mobilities have been identified as predominant. Nevertheless there have been calls for research that focuses on issues relating to everyday transportation, materialities and the spatial contexts of im/mobilities. This article is a response to those calls with a specific focus on young people's local experiences of urban im/mobilities. It is also a challenge to the lack of attention afforded young people by urban studies. Young urbanites are of an age where personal physical mobility to take advantage of all the resources, recreation and sociality offered by an urban landscape is an important part of 'growing up' and identity formation. Utilising two of mobility studies' conceptualisations, relationality and identity formation, this article examines young Aucklanders' im/mobilities through urban space.

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