ABSTRACT
One such ideology of childhood is the country childhood idyll. This is the idea that the countryside offers children a range of goods which includes, freedom, nature, space, fresh air, exercise, adventure, and so on. This powerful imagined geography can be found in various arenas of discourse, including literature (Bunce 2003), fi lm/television (O. Jones 2006), toys, and advertising images. Importantly, discourse can become practice as parents and other actors (including organisations) try to bring children and country spaces together in a number of ways. This positive association between childhood and rural spaces tells us a lot about how each element, and other hidden elements such as the urban, are imaginatively constructed and the power relations between them (Williams 1985).
