Children at Home in the Wired World: Reshaping and Rethinking Home in Urban Geography

This paper is concerned with two developments which place questions about the home center-stage in urban geography, namely the growth of new information and communications technologies (ICT) and the rise of “critical geographies.” The paper draws on an empirical investigation into British children's domestic use of ICT to move beyond Utopian and dystopian hyperbole about the future of the home in the wired world and consider how children's ICT usage is shaped within and reshapes the home environment. In so doing, the paper both broadens and deepens the conceptualization of home in urban geography. In terms of breadth, the analysis illustrates the importance of including children's as well as adults' voices and experiences in studies of domestic life. In terms of depth, it highlights the importance of studying the microgeographies of home as well as how social relations within the home shape its relation to the wider world. [Key words: geography, urban, home, children, ICT, computers.]