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Geography of Adolescent Anaphylaxis

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Play, Recreation, Health and Well Being

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 9))

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Abstract

This chapter examines how anaphylaxis shapes the geographies of adolescence. Anaphylaxis is a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction, commonly triggered by food. Research suggests that adolescents who experience anaphylaxis are at higher risk of death than other age groups. The chapter reviews previous studies and presents qualitative data about how being at risk of anaphylaxis affects teenagers’ bodies, their experiences of everyday spaces, and their patterns of travel. This analysis contributes to work on children’s geographies of food and of risk.

Anaphylaxis emerges as a spatially disruptive force, confounding conventional expectations about bodies, spaces, risk, and safety. The chapter explores how anaphylaxis and food intersect to produce spatialized risks, experienced most acutely by those with severe allergies and their close family and friends but also with wider societal effects. Within this context, anaphylaxis management can be understood as a form of biopower which shifts responsibility away from food producers and onto consumers. Where this is effective, it results in an intensification of self-surveillance and self-regulation. However, this relation to self can also allow for a loosening of power, creating opportunities for adolescents to adapt, rework, or resist different aspects of “good” allergy management, fashioning their own ways of living with risk and uncertainty.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University, Birley Building, 53 Bonsall Street, M15 6GX, Manchester, UK

    Michael Gallagher

  2. Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, UK

    Allison Worth

  3. Centre for Population Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Sarah Cunningham-Burley & Aziz Sheikh

Authors
  1. Michael Gallagher
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  2. Allison Worth
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  3. Sarah Cunningham-Burley
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  4. Aziz Sheikh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Gallagher .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Bethan Evans

  2. Centre of Children and Youth, The University of Northampton, Northampton, United Kingdom

    John Horton

  3. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Tracey Skelton

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Gallagher, M., Worth, A., Cunningham-Burley, S., Sheikh, A. (2015). Geography of Adolescent Anaphylaxis. In: Evans, B., Horton, J., Skelton, T. (eds) Play, Recreation, Health and Well Being. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 9. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-96-5_26-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-96-5_26-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-4585-96-5

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