“a fascinating account…useful and highly readable…this ambitious book is to be commended for its rich fieldwork”
(Children’s Geographies, 2021)
Professor Mills has recently examined digital geographies of childhood, popular culture and parenting through collaborative ESRC research (led by Newcastle University) on children and young people’s experiences of gaming/gambling, including paid reward systems in digital games and loot boxes.
Her longstanding research interest and contributions focus on youth citizenship and volunteering. Prof. Mills’ ESRC and AHRC-funded research has examined several youth organisations and mapped how the moral geographies of education (i.e. character, citizenship and values-based education) shapes children and young people’s lives.
Professor Mills’ research has primarily focused on children and young people’s spaces in the United Kingdom, however a recent international collaborative ESRC-GCRF project has examined volunteering by young refugees in Uganda (RYVU, with Northumbria University, Uganda Martyrs University & Mbarara University of Science & Technology).
Academic Publications
Google Scholar Profile | ORCID | Institutional Repository (open-access)
Books
Mills, S. (2021) Mapping the Moral Geographies of Education: Character, Citizenship and Values London: Routledge
Kallio, K. P., Mills, S. and Skelton, T. (2016) (eds) Politics, Citizenship and Rights, Vol. 7 of Geographies of Children and Young People. Singapore: Springer
Mills, S. and Kraftl, P. (2014) (eds) Informal Education, Childhood and Youth: Geographies, Histories, Practices Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (hardback, paperback and ebook)
Journal Articles
Okech, M., Baillie Smith, M., Fadel, B. and Mills, S. (2024) ‘The Reproduction of Inequality Through Volunteering by Young Refugees in Uganda’, VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations
Mills, S., Ash, J., and Gordon, R. (2024) ‘Children and Young People’s Experiences and Understandings of Gambling Style Systems in Digital Games: Loot Boxes, Popular Culture, and Changing Childhoods’, Annals of the American Association of Geographers 114 (1): 200-217 https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2023.2248293
Esson, J., Mills, S., Blazek, M., Pickerill, J., Tebet, G. and Kraftl, P. (2023, online) Reading Peter Kraftl’s After Childhood: Re-Thinking Environment, Materiality and Media in Children’s Lives, in Political Geography
Ash, J., Gordon, R. and Mills, S. (2023) ‘Geographies of the event? Rethinking time and power through digital interfaces’, cultural geographies 30 (1): 3-18.
Baillie Smith, M., Mills, S. Okech, M., and Fadel, B. (2022) Uneven geographies of youth volunteering in Uganda, multi-scalar discourses and practices, Geoforum 134: 30-39.
Mills, S. and Waite, C. (2022) ‘The state and voluntary sector in austere times: 10 years of National Citizen Service’, Geography 107 (1): 38-45
Jones, R., Cornelissen, S., Hiemstra, N., Johnson, C., Mills, S., Yamazaki, T. and Pallister-Wilkins, P. (2020) Editorial. Geopolitics 25 (1): 1-3
Hickman Dunne, J. and Mills, S. (2019) Educational landscapes: nature, place and moral geographies, The Geographical Journal 185 (3): 254-257
Holloway, S. L., Holt, L. and Mills, S. (2019) Questions of Agency: Capacity, Subjectivity, Spatiality, Temporality, Progress in Human Geography 43 (3): 458-477
Smith, D. P. and Mills, S. (2019) The ‘youth-fullness’ of Youth Geographies: ‘coming of age’?, Children’s Geographies 17 (1): 1-8
Mills, S. and Waite, C. (2018) From Big Society to Shared Society? Geographies of social cohesion and encounter in the UK’s National Citizen Service, Geografiska Annaler: Series B Human Geography 100 (2): 131-148
Mills, S. and Waite, C. (2017) Brands of Youth Citizenship and the Politics of Scale: National Citizen Service in the United Kingdom, Political Geography 56 (1): 66-76
Mills, S. (2017) Voice: Sonic Geographies of Childhood, Children’s Geographies 15 (6): 664-677
Mills, S. (2016) Jives, jeans and Jewishness? Moral geographies, atmospheres and the politics of mixing at the Jewish Lads’ Brigade & Club 1954-1969, Environment and Planning D: Society & Space 34 (6): 1098-1112.
Jones, R., Merriman, P. and Mills, S. (2016) Youth organisations and the reproduction of nationalism in Britain: the role of Urdd Gobaith Cymru, Social & Cultural Geography 17 (5): 714-734
Mills, S. and Kraftl, P. (2016) Cultural Geographies of Education, cultural geographies 23 (1): 19-27
Mills, S. (2016) Geographies of education, volunteering and the lifecourse: the Woodcraft Folk in Britain (1925-1975), cultural geographies 23 (1): 103-119
Mills, S. (2015) Geographies of youth work, volunteering and employment: The Jewish Lads’ Brigade & Club in post-war Manchester, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers40 (4): 523-535
McKendrick, J.H., Kraftl P., Mills, S., Gregorius, S. and Sykes, G. (2015) Complex geographies of play provision dis/investment across the UK, International Journal of Play 4 (3): 228-235
McKendrick, J. H., Kraftl, P., Mills, S., Gregorius, S. and Sykes, G. (2015) Geographies for play in austere times, International Journal of Play 4 (3): 291-298
Woolvin, M., Mills, S., Hardill, I. and Rutherford, A.(2015) Divergent geographies of policy and practice? Voluntarism and devolution in England, Scotland and Wales, The Geographical Journal 181 (1): 38-46
Mills, S. (2014) Youth on Streets and Bob-a-Job Week: Urban geographies of masculinity, risk and constructions of home in post-war Britain, Environment and Planning A 46 (1): 112-128
Rogers, A., Bear, C., Hunt, M., Mills, S. and Sandover, R. (2014) Intervention: The Impact Agenda and Human Geography in UK Higher Education, ACME 13 (1): 1-9
Hardill, I. and Mills, S. (2013) Enlivening evidence-based policy through embodiment and emotions, Contemporary Social Science: Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences, 8 (3): 321-332
Mills, S. (2013) Cultural-Historical Geographies of the Archive: Fragments, Objects and Ghosts, Geography Compass 7 (10): 701-713
Mills, S. (2013) Surprise! Public historical geographies, user engagement and voluntarism, Area 45 (1): 16-22
Mills, S. (2013) “An Instruction in Good Citizenship”: Scouting and the Historical Geographies of Citizenship Education, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 38 (1):120-134
- Winner of the 2015 AAG Political Geography Speciality Group’s ‘Outstanding Research Award’ (Virginie Mamadouh Award)
Robinson, J. and Mills, S (2012) Being Observant/Observed: embodied citizenship training in Britain’s Home Guard and Boy Scout Movement, 1907-1945, Journal of Historical Geography38 (4): 412-423
Mills, S. (2012) Duty to God/Dharma/Allah/Waheguru: Diverse youthful religiosities and the politics and performance of informal worship, Social & Cultural Geography13 (5): 481-499
Mills, S. (2012) Young Ghosts: Ethical and Methodological Issues of Archival Research in Children’s Geographies, ‘Viewpoint’ in Children’s Geographies10 (3): 357-363
Mills, S. (2011) Scouting for Girls? Gender and the Scout Movement in Britain, Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 18 (4): 537-556 [reprinted here]
Mills, S. (2011) Be Prepared: Communism and the Politics of Scouting in 1950s Britain, Contemporary British History 25 (3): 429-450
Research Project Reports
Ash, J., Gordon, R. and Mills, S. (2022) Between Gaming and Gambling: Children, Young People and Paid Reward Systems in Digital Games, Newcastle University
Mills, S. and Waite, C. (2017) National Citizen Service: A Geographical Approach Loughborough University ISBN: 978-1-5272-1279-4 (available on request)
For policy briefings, games and exhibition material from the Refugee Youth Volunteering Uganda project, click here.
Book Chapters
Crawford, L. and Mills, S. (2020) ‘Historical Research: Gender, Politics and Ethics’ in Datta, A., Hopkins, P., Johnston, L., Olson, E. and Silva, J.M. (eds) Routledge International Handbook of Gender and Feminist Geographies London: Routledge, 490-500
Mills, S. (2016) ‘Archival fieldwork and children’s geographies’ in Evans, R., Holt, L. and Skelton, T. (2016) (eds) Methodological Approaches, Vol. 2 of Geographies of Children and Young People Singapore: Springer
Kallio, K P. and Mills, S. (2016) ‘Editorial: Geographies of children and young people’s politics, citizenship and rights’ in Kallio, K. P., Mills, S. and Skelton, T. (2016) (eds) Politics, Citizenship and Rights, Vol. 7 of Geographies of Children and Young People Singapore: Springer, ix-xviii
Mills, S. and Duckett, J. (2016) ‘Representing , reproducing and re-configuring the nation: geographies of youth citizenship and devolution’ in Kallio, K. P., Mills, S. and Skelton, T. (2016) (eds) Politics, Citizenship and Rights, Vol. 7 of Geographies of Children and Young People Singapore: Springer, 515-529
Mills, S. (2014) “A Powerful Educational Instrument”: The Woodcraft Folk, indoor/outdoor nature and pedagogical practice 1925-1975, in Mills, S. and Kraftl, P. (eds) Informal Education, Childhood and Youth: Geographies, Histories, Practices Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 65-78
Mills, S. and Kraftl, P. (2014) ‘Introduction: Geographies, Histories and Practices of Informal Education’ in Mills, S. and Kraftl, P. (eds) Informal Education, Childhood and Youth: Geographies, Histories, Practices Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1-18
Kraftl, P. and Mills, S. (2014) ‘Concluding reflections’ in Mills, S. and Kraftl, P. (eds) Informal Education, Childhood and Youth: Geographies, Histories, Practices Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 285-291.
Mills, S. (2009) ‘Citizenship and Faith: Muslim Scout Groups’ in Richard Phillips (Ed.) Muslim Spaces of Hope: Geographies of Possibility in Britain and the West London: Zed Books, 85-103
Mills, S. (2009) ‘Youth Citizenship and Religious Difference: Muslim Scouting in the United Kingdom’ in Tammy Proctor and Nelson Block (eds) Scouting Frontiers: Global Youth and the Scout Movement’s First Century, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 190-206
Professor Sarah Mills 