Nexus thinking and the geographies of children, youth and families: towards an integrated research agenda

This paper argues for and demonstrates the value of integrating nexus
thinking - a conceptual and policy framework for the multiple
interdependencies between resources, most commonly food, water and
energy – into the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families (GCYF).
Through discussion of the two areas’ current limitations, a review of
existing GCYF work on food, water, energy and materiality, and
secondary auto-analysis of data generated on families’ situated
environmental concerns in India and the UK, the paper identifies three
key contributions of an integrated nexus thinking-GCYF research
agenda. Firstly, nexus thinking can advance understandings of how
children and young people negotiate multi-scalar social, political,
economic and ecological processes; secondly, an integrated agenda can
‘embody’ nexus thinking by situating children and families in the nexus
of interconnections; thirdly, nexus thinking offers a policy-relevant frame
through which GCYF can engage questions of intergenerational justice
with questions of resource sustainability.