Children are at the heart of popular and public debates in North America and Europe about the culture of public space. This book addresses the debates about children's role in public space, setting them within an academic framework and drawing on a range of interdisciplinary work on childhood, young people and parenting.

Gill Valentine is Professor of Geography, and Director of the Leeds Social Sciences Institute at the University of Leeds, UK. She is the (co) author/editor of 10 books, and over 75 articles (in print/in press) in major international journals and in key edited volumes. She is currently co-editor of two journals: Gender, Place and Culture and Social and Cultural Geography and is a member of five other editorial boards.

Contents: Childhood in crisis?; Terror talk: geographies of fear; Gender and parenting cultures; 'I can handle it': children and competence; The retreat from the street; Contested terrain: teenagers in public space; Children and the future of public space; References; Index.