Decolonizing children’s geographies: Challenging knowledge production about childhoods in Baltimore, MD

Abstract

In this viewpoint, I argue for greater engagement between children’s geographies and decolonial scholarship. I suggest that decolonial scholarship, by emphasizing the role that knowledge plays in justifying and perpetuating inequalities, offers a way to bring analyses of childhoods in the Global North into conversation with analyses of childhoods in the Global South. Instead of positioning southern childhoods as the ‘other’ in relation to global childhoods, decolonial approaches reveal how colonial legacies continue to shape the governance of children in a diverse range of spaces. Further, decolonial scholarship’s focus on praxis offers possible avenues forward in ongoing debates about children’s agency and research approaches. I conclude by considering how my own work with children in Baltimore could benefit from the decolonial scholarship.