Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Stress and stereotypes: Children's reactions to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the UK in 2001

Nerlich, B.; Hillyard, S.H.; Wright, N.

Authors

B. Nerlich

S.H. Hillyard

N. Wright



Abstract

In 2001 foot and mouth disease broke out in the UK and millions of farm animals were slaughtered in order to eradicate it. This affected farmers, town dwellers, adults and children. Based on a small sample of 56 e-mails to a children's BBC (CBBC) message board and using an ethnomethodological approach, this article explores the way in which children in rural and urban areas responded to the effects of this epidemic and how they structured their understandings of one another through the use of rural and urban stereotypes. It shows that the stress felt by some of the children who lived on or near infected farms during the outbreak was exacerbated by the fact that they felt misunderstood by other children living in surroundings not directly affected by foot and mouth disease.

Citation

Nerlich, B., Hillyard, S., & Wright, N. (2005). Stress and stereotypes: Children's reactions to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the UK in 2001. Children & Society, 19(5), 384-359. https://doi.org/10.1002/chi.845

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date 2005-11
Deposit Date Mar 15, 2007
Journal Children & Society
Print ISSN 0951-0605
Electronic ISSN 1099-0860
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 19
Issue 5
Pages 384-359
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/chi.845