Exploring the emotional geographies of children and young people sheltering from domestic abuse

Children and young people outnumber women living in refuge from domestic abuse,
yet scholarship persists to exclude their narratives from discussions and research,
especially within human geography. This research aims to challenge the adultist
framings of domestic abuse as only an adult-female experience. In collaboration
with Harbour Support Services, this ethnographic project explores the relations of
emotional geographies to childhood everyday experiences of living in refuge from
domestic abuse. Through an empowering, trauma-informed Participatory Action
Research (PAR) project, it seeks to reframe debates of children and young people
as passive actors in society and within their own lives. This proposed cutting-edge
research, seeks to explore the socio-spatial relations of power, voice and emotions
of children living in refuge in North East England. This research centres the lived
experiences of children and young people, giving them a space to lead and explore
their emotional experiences of sheltering from domestic abuse through a project
that is meaningful to them.