Environment and children's everyday lives in India and England

311 Pages·2016·3.8 MB·English

by  Catherine Walker

Environment and children’s
everyday lives in India and
England: Experiences,
understandings and
practices

Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Catherine Louise Walker
University College London (UCL)

Supervised by:
Professor Ann Phoenix, Thomas Coram Research Unit,
UCL Institute of Education
Professor Janet Boddy, Centre for Innovation in Research
on Childhood and Youth, University of Sussex

1
Declaration

I carried out the study presented in this thesis as a doctoral researcher on the
ESRC National Centre for Research Methods node NOVELLA (Narratives of
Varied Everyday Lives and Linked Approaches), and in collaboration with
researchers on two research studies, Family Lives and the Environment and
Young Lives. The thesis presents data that have been generated through
collaborative work between myself and members of these research studies. I
conducted all of the new research in children’s schools and almost all of the
new interviews with children in their homes. Except where explicit attribution is
made, the analyses presented in this thesis are my own.

Word count (exclusive of appendices and bibliography): 79,976 words

2
Abstract

In the context of heightened global concerns about resource sustainability and
‘climate change’, children are often discursively positioned as the ‘next
generation’ by environmentalists and policy makers concerned with addressing
‘climate change’ and environmental degradation. This positioning serves to
present a moral case for action and to assign children a unique place in the
creation of more sustainable societies. In this study I critically engage with the
assumptions about children’s agency underlying such positioning by
considering these assumptions in relation to children’s situated narratives of
environment and everyday life.

The children’s narratives were generated through multiple qualitative research
activities carried out with twenty-six 11-15-year-old children living in a variety of
contexts in India and England, as part of two wider research projects to which
this study is linked, Family Lives and the Environment (part of NOVELLA –
Narratives of Varied Everyday Lives and Linked Approaches) and Young Lives.
The study treats country-level differences as one of a number of intersecting
structural varieties alongside children’s socio-economic positioning and gender;
an equal number of boys and girls living in rural and urban settings and from
affluent and poorer families are included in both countries.

Employing a narrative, case-based approach, the research examines the ways
in which children exercised agency by presenting themselves as responsible
individuals with considerable knowledge about environmental concerns, whilst
often stressing their awareness of the limitations of what their own actions taken
in response to these concerns could achieve. In contrast to policy framings
which often accord responsibility to children to enact and influence ‘pro-
environmental’ changes in the spaces of their everyday lives, children’s
narratives point to the need for sustained multi-generational and institutionally-
led action to tackle environmental degradation as it is now and as it may affect
children and families in varied contexts in the future.

3
Table of contents

Declaration .............................................................................................................................. 2
Abstract ................................................................................................................................... 3
List of tables and images ....................................................................................................... 7
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ 8
Preface: Learning from children’s narratives ..................................................................... 10
Chapter One: Background to this study
1.1: Climate change: The ‘great leveller’? .......................................................................... 12
1.2: Environmental governance and everyday life ............................................................ 15
1.3: Children in climate change policy ................................................................................ 19
1.4: Environment and children’s everyday lives in India and England............................. 22
1.5: Overarching aims, research questions and contribution of this study ...................... 27
1.6: Structure of this thesis .................................................................................................. 29
Chapter Two: Environment and children's everyday lives in existing scholarship
2.1: Children’s agency: Theoretical and political developments ...................................... 31
2.2: Exploring children’s agency through relationships, materials and spaces............... 36
2.3: Conceptualising environment in an era of global concern ........................................ 42
Nature and human life ......................................................................................................42
The ‘global’ environment ..................................................................................................44
Space and place in local-global contexts .......................................................................45
2.4: Children’s embodied experiences of their environments ........................................... 47
2.5: Children’s responses to environmental education messages ................................... 53
2.6: Children and families’ negotiations of environmental knowledge ............................. 56
2.7: Summary of literature reviewed and areas for further research ............................... 60
Chapter Three: Methodology and methods
3.1: Theoretical foundations of the study ........................................................................... 63
A narrative approach ........................................................................................................63
Multi-method research .....................................................................................................67
Learning from contextual variety .....................................................................................70
3.2: A linked PhD study........................................................................................................ 72
3.3: Secondary analysis of Young Lives data .................................................................... 74
Generating a sub-sample for secondary analysis .........................................................75
Analysis of Young Lives data ..........................................................................................78
3.4: Ethical considerations in secondary analysis and new data generation .................. 81
3.5: New data generation in India and England ................................................................. 85
4
Constructing a research sample .....................................................................................87
Learning from existing studies to design the research ..................................................92
Piloting the research.........................................................................................................94
Methods used to generate new data ..............................................................................95
Analysis of new data ......................................................................................................100
3.6: Summary ..................................................................................................................... 104
Chapter Four: Children's narratives of environment in Young Lives data
4.1: The affordances of children’s environments over time ............................................ 107
4.2: Children’s expressed environmental concerns......................................................... 119
4.3: Discussion ................................................................................................................... 125
Chapter Five: The affordances of children's everyday environments
5.1: The affordances of children’s homes ........................................................................ 129
The home as a form of protection from environmental hazards .................................131
Spatial and material affordances of children’s homes .................................................139
Material objects and virtual expansions of domestic spaces ......................................143
5.2: The affordances of children’s outdoor environments ............................................... 149
Factors mediating children’s use of outdoor spaces ...................................................152
Children’s sensory stories of their journeys to school .................................................159
5.3: Discussion ................................................................................................................... 167
Chapter Six: Children's situated understandings of environment and environmental
concern
6.1: Forms of knowledge and sites of learning about environment ............................... 170
School-based learning and practices ............................................................................170
The home as a site for learning and consolidating environmental knowledge..........174
Local laws, government activities and ‘authoritative knowledge’ ...............................177
Media and popular presentations of the environment .................................................180
6.2: Children’s narratives of environmental concern ....................................................... 183
Aamir: Air pollution in the present and future ...............................................................184
Rosie: Loss of natural beauty ........................................................................................186
Tamsin and Amrutha: Weather events and human suffering .....................................189
6.3: Discussion ................................................................................................................... 193
Chapter Seven: Children's agency to act on environmental concerns
7.1: Family negotiations of household practices .............................................................. 196
7.2: Children’s narratives of speaking or acting on environmental knowledge ............. 203
7.3: Children’s critical reflections on their agency to act in areas of policy interest...... 209
Maintaining public cleanliness .......................................................................................210
5
Reducing household resource consumption ................................................................214
7.4: Discussion ................................................................................................................... 220
Chapter Eight: Discussion and conclusions
8.1: Children’s varying experiences of environmental hazards ...................................... 222
8.2: Children’s situated understandings of environment and environmental concern .. 227
8.3: Children’s agency to enact environmental knowledge in everyday practices........ 231
8.4: Contribution of this study to theoretical knowledge ................................................. 235
8.5: Reflections on the methodology used in this study .................................................. 237
8.6: Implications of this study for policy and practice ...................................................... 243
8.7: Closing reflections....................................................................................................... 246
References and appendices
References .......................................................................................................................... 248
Appendix One: Studies to which this PhD is linked ......................................................... 280
Appendix Two: Pen portraits of schools attended by new research participants ......... 283
Appendix Three: Ethical approval for this study .............................................................. 287
Appendix Four: Copies of information sheets and protocols of research activities ...... 288
Information sheets for participants ................................................................................288
Protocols of research activities for new data generation ............................................291
Appendix Five: Sample analysis of an extract of data .................................................... 307

6
List of tables and images

Tables
Table 3.1: Sample of children in Young Lives secondary analysis (p. 77).
Table 3.2: Sample of children in new data generation for this study (p. 91).
Table 3.3: Methods used in new data generation (p. 95).
Table 3.4: Transcription conventions used to present new data (p. 101).

Images
Image 5.1: Helena’s photograph of her garden in rural England (p. 130).
Image 5.2: Dharani’s photograph of the roof inside her home in rural Andhra
Pradesh (p. 132).
Image 5.3: Mamatha’s photograph of her mother at the entrance to their family
home in Hyderabad (p. 137).
Image 5.4: Humphrey’s photograph of the attic in his home in London (p. 140).
Image 5.5: Amrutha’s family’s map, depicting places making up their everyday
lives in Hyderabad (p. 146).
Image 5.6: Hemant’s photograph, showing him under his favourite tree in rural
Andhra Pradesh (p. 151).
Image 5.7: Gomathi’s photograph, showing her on the swings in the basement
of their apartment block in Hyderabad (p. 153).
Image 5.8: Reethika’s photograph of the park next to her apartment in a
regional city in Andhra Pradesh (p. 157).
Image 5.9: Callum’s photograph of the road next to his home in rural England
(p. 162).
Image 5.10: Amy’s map of her journey to school in rural England (p. 164).

7
Acknowledgements

This research study would not have been possible without many people.
Foremost amongst them are the children and families who so generously
shared their time by participating in the piloting and data generation stages of
this research study. Additionally, I wish to thank the children and families who
took part in Young Lives, and who agreed that their information could be shared
with other researchers, as in this research study.

This research study has been funded by the ESRC National Centre for
Research Methods (NCRM) as part of the NCRM Phase Three node Narratives
of Varied Everyday Lives and Linked Approaches (NOVELLA; ESRC number
RES-576-25-0053). I am grateful to the NCRM for the funding I received.

This research study has been expertly supervised by Professors Ann Phoenix
and Janet Boddy, and its design and intellectual framing owe much to how Ann
and Janet designed and led the research node and project to which this
research study is linked: NOVELLA (on which Ann is Principal Investigator); and
Family Lives and the Environment (on which Janet is Principal Investigator and
Ann is a Co-investigator). It has been a pleasure to be supervised by Ann and
Janet, whilst working alongside them in carrying out this study.

I am grateful to Berry Mayall for reading and commenting on a draft version of
this thesis, and for the intellectual insights she offered. I also wish to thank Gina
Crivello and Virginia Morrow for their insightful comments on Chapter Four of
this thesis, and, along with Uma Vennam, Emma Wilson and Renu Singh, for
sharing their time and wisdom in guiding my secondary analysis of Young Lives
data.

I have greatly benefitted from completing this research study as a member of
the NOVELLA node, which has enabled me to learn from a number of
intellectually-stimulating researchers.

Working alongside other Family Lives and the Environment researchers, in
particular Madhavi Latha, Natasha Shukla and Janet Boddy, in generating data
made fieldwork in both countries a hugely enjoyable and enriching experience.
In particular, I am grateful to Madhavi for her expert linguistic and cultural
brokering in Andhra Pradesh, and to Madhavi, Satya and Sisir for their
wonderful hospitality. Special acknowledgement is also due to Natasha Shukla,
with whom I shared four challenging but exhilarating months of fieldwork in
Andhra Pradesh. Many thanks to Natasha’s family for their hospitality in
providing accommodation in Hyderabad, and to Ravi and Nalini for organising
our fieldwork accommodation in rural Andhra Pradesh and opening their home
to us on so many occasions.

8
This thesis would not have been completed without the work of all those who
translated and transcribed data for this study. Thanks also to Jo Francis for her
highly efficient proof-reading of this thesis.

I am grateful for the friendship of other doctoral students, amongst them Joe
Winter, Stephanie Baum, Heather Elliott, Veena Meetoo, Eilidh Cage, Berit
Henriksen, Kate Cowan, Charley Nussey, Yun You, Diana Sousa, Stuart
Campbell and Will Essefie. Opportunities to share the ups and downs of PhD
life with you over tea and wine have lifted many days of thesis writing.

I am hugely grateful to my family and friends for your unfailing love, support and
belief in my capacities to complete this research study, even when my own
belief was wavering. I particularly wish to thank my parents, Roy and Sibella, for
your support at every stage of my academic journey. Thanks also to my sister
Suzanne (along with Paul and Nina) for your support from a distance of 6,000+
miles, and to my godmother Janet. I could not have completed this PhD without
all of you. Amongst the many friends who have journeyed with me through the
PhD process, special thanks are due to my flatmates Eilidh, Kim and Vanessa,
to friends from church whose prayers and encouragements sustained my
writing and to those whose friendships and predictions that I would complete a
PhD long predate the completion of this thesis, amongst them Anna, Kathryn,
Helen, Heather, Hannah, Julia, Sarah, Lucio, Gabriel, Cristiane and Lais.

Soli Deo gloria.
9
Preface: Learning from children’s narratives

As I finalise this thesis, delegates of 195 countries are meeting at a United
Nations-convened summit in Paris to finalise a legally-binding global agreement
to tackle ‘climate change’ through reducing ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions by
2020. Amidst ongoing debates and disagreements, many of which are reported
in ways that pit the interests of ‘rich’ and ‘poor countries’ against one another,
the Paris summit has been constructed in the media as a ‘make-or-break
conference’ and a ‘last chance for coordinated global action’ on climate change
(Harvey, 2015a, 2015b). At the opening of the summit, President Obama
described climate change as a challenge that could ‘define the contours of this
century more dramatically than any other’ (Harvey, 2015b). Meanwhile, despite
significant rhetoric about the need to ‘protect the planet for future generations’,
one commentary written on the eve of the summit notes that children and young
people are ‘conspicuously absent’ from activities at the summit and the draft
agreement being discussed (Pegram, 2015).

I was aged eight at the time of United Nations ‘Earth Summit’ held in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992, which, like the Paris summit, is often hailed as a turning point
in how humans have come to understand our vulnerability to environmental
events and the need to act to reduce this vulnerability for our own and future
generations. At this and every other such summit, politicians spoke of the need
to act on behalf of the ‘next generation’, which in 1992 included children like me.
As my generation has grown up into early adulthood, new generations have
come to fill our place to be evoked at such summits as a symbolic motif used to
buttress the case for urgent action on environmental concerns. In recent years,
evocations of the global poor have come to serve in much the same way.

Over my lifetime, myriad phrases and concepts such as ‘global warming’ (or, in
recent years, ‘climate change’) ‘recycling’, ‘carbon footprint’ and ‘food miles’
have entered the public imagination and changed individual and public
perceptions about the acceptability of particular actions and practices as these
are weighed up in terms of their environmental ‘(un)friendliness’. Growing up in
rural England and in a family with a keen interest in ‘environmental issues’, the
10