Girlhood and the Politics of Place

Book Reviews 157 Girlhood and the Politics of Place Claudia Mitchell and Carrie Rentschler, editors (2016) Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books, 342 pages $34.95 (paperback); ISBN 978-1-78533-017-9 The cover of Girlhood and the Politics of Place captures the aim of the book perfectly: “YOU GO GiRL,” a black slogan in a fluro yellow heart spray-painted on the brick wall of an apartment block, making visible the presence of girls in an environment where they are often sidelined, marginalized, and spoken for. Claudia Mitchell and Carrie Rentschler, the editors of the collection, have produced a text that centers the “context-specific conditions in which girls live, learn, play and organize” (p. 3)—the research in this book girls sees girls, and listens to them. Taking a lead from contemporary cultural geography, where “place as a concept is of great significance” (p. 1), the book approaches “place as an especially productive and enabling concept” that “provides needed specificity to the very meaning of girl” (p. 1). In other words, Girlhood and the Politics of Place doesn’t just seek to examine the spatial and material conditions within which girls live, but it positions girls as place-makers. This book makes a significant contribution to girlhood studies as it demonstrates, through transnational and interdisciplinary methods, the places where girlhoods are made are just as complex and multiple as the girls themselves. The book is divided into four parts. As Rentschler and Mitchell explain in the Introduction, each section is “framed around a particular conceptualization of place” (p. 6). Section One, “Girls in Latitude and Longitude,” examines historical and cultural qualities of specific places, including institutions and landscapes, which girls identify as impacting their processes of identity construction. Section Two, “Situated Knowledge, Self-Reflective Practice,” places participants and researchers inside the process of understanding girlhoods, both as individuals and collectively. Section Three, “Girls and Media Spaces,” explores places where girls are represented with relation to different forms of media, and the ways in which girls are made and make themselves visible in these spaces. Section Four, “Studying the Spaces of Girls’ Activism,” highlights the unique concerns girls experience when navigating institutions and their everyday worlds, as well as the agentic ways they do and can take action against significant challenges. Across the four sections, the politics of place are approached in radically different ways. However, shared across the pastiche of projects is a shift away from how girlhood is identified towards how (and where) girlhood is produced; from what being a girl means, to what being a girl means or what doing girlhood involves. As a whole the book effectively problematizes the traditional ways girlhood and girls are positioned, both in their social worlds and by researchers. This shift is a valuable contribution to the field. Girlhood and the Politics of Place will be of interest to any researcher wanting insight into how methodological designs can “open up” the spaces of girlhood, and how the multiplicitous contexts within which girls live their youth are significant for theorizing girlhoods. Book Reviews 158 All 18 chapters are worthy of discussion, however particular chapters stand out for their innovative methodological approaches. In chapter two Marnina Gonick works to produce a counterdiscourse to postfeminism, problematizing claims of gender equality and female success through an ethnographic-art method and video installation project that importantly situates “knowledge-making practices as always contextualized” (p. 39). In chapter eight Teresa Strong-Wilson employs an auto/biographical and memory-work approach to explore the place-context of relationships between girlhood and womanhood, and between mother and daughter. Chapter 14, by Connie Morrison, engages with girls online through an avatar creation process to uncover the ways girls’ identities are socially constructed across both on- and off-line spaces. In chapter 17 Lysanne Rivard employs visual participatory methods—Photovoice—with groups of Rwandan girls in order to “integrate girls’ voices” (298) into institutional decision-making processes regarding sport and physical activity in their high schools. Similarly, key chapters stand out for their significant conceptual and theoretical contributions. In the first chapter, Indigenous scholar Sandrina de Finney analyzes presencing experiences of Indigenous girls in Canada. As her participants challenge grand...

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