Digital Geographies of Childhood and Youth

Digital technologies are deeply embedded in the everyday lives of many children and young people, yet geographical scholarship on this topic remains fragmented. Recent years have seen the beginnings of a productive conversation between the geographies of childhood and youth and digital geographies. This symposium seeks to deepen that conversation by exploring emerging themes around the digital geographies of childhood and youth.

Programme

MONDAY, 22 June 2026

13:30 Registration and coffee

14:00–14:30 Welcome and Opening: Digital Geographies of Childhood and Youth

Tabea Bork-Hüffer, University of Heidelberg, Peter Kraftl, Loughborough University, Christina Ergler, University of Otago, Sarah Mills, Loughborough University

14:30–15:45 Session: Gaming, Gambling, and Power

James Ash, Newcastle University: Sequence Power: Digital Geographies of Childhood and Youth between Gaming and Gambling

Amy Linklater, Loughborough University: Digital Gaming/Gambling Harms and Students: Financial Literacy and the Transition to Adulthood

Eyram Tawia, Loughborough University: Gaming, Power, and Participation: Digital Youth Geographies in Ghana

15:45–16:15 Coffee break

16:15–17:05 Session: Access, Informality, and Livelihoods

Adeniyi Gbadegesin, University of Ibadan: (Non)Spatial Barriers to Accessibility of Digital Technology and its Effects on Children and Adolescents in Nigeria

Nathan Salvidge, University of Reading: Critically Examining how Smartphones and Social Media Platforms (Re)shape Young People’s Informal Livelihoods in Urban Tanzania

Conference dinner (self-paid)

TUESDAY, 23 June 2026

09:00–10:15 Session: Affective Politics, Youth Mobilisation, and Counter Atmospheres

Mohammad Amerian, University of Otago, Christina Ergler, University of Otago, Tracey Skelton, University of Otago, Ash Alam, University of Melbourne: From Streets to Screens: Digital Infrastructures, Youth Agency and the Production of Urban Atmospheres in Iran

Camila Ponce Lara, Alpen Adria-University Klagenfurt: The Digital “Cultural Battle”: Radical Right Youth Movements, Affective Politics, and Inequality in the Global South

Kathrin Hörschelmann, University of Bonn, Feyda Sayan-Cengiz, Celal Bayar University: Youth Engagements with Populist Radical Right Discourses on Social Media – Contextual and Intersectional Dynamics

10:15–10:45 Coffee break

10:45–11:35 Session: More-than-human Geographies, Environmental Practices, and Youth Engagements

Yusuf Munshi, Swinburne University of Technology: More-than-human Geographies of Youth Climate Activism: Mapping Mobilisation in Melbourne and Delhi

Nina Liebhaber, Ulster University: Concealing, Smelting, Compressing: Dis-entangling Attempts in Young People’s Visions to Address Electronic Waste Problems

11:35–12:25 Session: Gendered (Cyber-)Violence, Youth Strategies, and Agency

Elisabeth Militz, University of Innsbruck: Despite Uyat: Young People’s Social Media Strategies for Addressing Sexualized Violence in Kyrgyzstan

Belinda Mahlknecht, University of Innsbruck, Lea Lübbert, Hochschule Fresenius, Tabea Bork-Hüffer, University of Heidelberg: Coping with Mundane (Cyber-)Violence: FLINTA* Youth’s Strategies in the Resurgent Patriarchy

12:25–14:00 Walk to and lunch at the university canteen

14:00–15:15 Session: Regulation, Control, and (Co-)Agency across Homes, Childcare, and Schools

Hayoung Lee, Teachers College Columbia University: Geographies of Childcare at Home in South Korea: Surveillant Assemblage of Babycam, Nannycam, or Smart Home

Mennatullah Hendawy, TU Munich: From Parental Control to Negotiated Care: Co-Designing Digital Co-Agency for Child Online Safety Across Cairo, Berlin, and Silicon Valley

Margarida Borras, Manchester Metropolitan University: Mobile Phones in Schools: A Sociomaterial Analysis of Teachers’ and Students’ Understandings of Regulatory Practices and Educational Use

15:15–15:45 Coffee break

15:45–17:15 Session: Belonging, Autonomy, and Life Transitions

Rachel Billington, University of Otago: Adolescence After the Algorithmic Turn: Recognition, Rites, and Technologies of Power

Wenxiao Hou, Erasmus University Rotterdam: Compensatory Digital Practices: Belonging and Mobility Aspirations among Tibetan Vocational Youth

Johannes Melchert, Jan Misera, Tabea Bork-Hüffer, University of Heidelberg: Disabled Youth Navigating the Ambiguous Role of Digital Technologies in Public-Space Inclusion and Exclusion

WEDNESDAY, 24 June 2026

09:00–10:40 Session: Urban Places, Digital Experiences, and Participation

Antonia Appel, Dana Reul, PH Freiburg: Children’s Digital Participation in Smart and Sustainable Urban Development

Fatemeh Farjamtalab, University of Kurdistan, Hooshmand Alizadeh, University of Kurdistan and University of Heidelberg: Navigating the Metaverse: Urban Digital Experiences of Adolescents in Hamadan and Implications for Global Youth Geographies

Serhat Ay, Taner Kılıç, Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University: Children’s Resilient Digital Geographies: Cybercafés as Heterotopic Third Places for Working-Class Children in Istanbul

Gao Yuxin, University of Birmingham: Critically Aligning AI with Children’s Urban Perspectives: Expanding Participation in Child-Friendly Urban Futures

10:40–11:10 Coffee break

11:10–12:05 Session: Tracking, Monitoring, and Embodied Health Practices

Olivia Fletcher, University of Liverpool: Reimagining Health Tracking Technologies: Centring Young Women’s Embodied Lives

Jessy Williams, University of Plymouth: Digitally Mediated Reflection: Young People’s Mood Monitoring Practices and Posthuman Subjectivities

12:05–13:00 Reflections, planning of edited volume, closing

Organising team

Prof. Dr. Tabea Bork-Hüffer, Heidelberg University

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Christina Ergler, University of Otago

Prof. Dr. Peter Kraftl, Loughborough University

Prof. Dr. Sarah Mills, Loughborough University

We would like to thank the International Academic Forum of Heidelberg University for the use of its facilities.