Research group CHILDSPACE – Research Network on Young Children and Public Space
The research network has an interdisciplinary and international focus on exploring the relationships between young children and surrounding public spaces. It includes researchers from childhood and youth studies, preschool didactics, pedagogy, educational science, environmental psychology, landscape architecture, and cultural geography.
The interdisciplinary research network CHILDSPACE is founded on an interest in questions concerning young children’s participation and agency in public spaces and contexts, as well as the role that childhood institutions and other actors focusing on young children play in enabling such participation. A public space is an environment open for the public to access and inhabit. Much previous research on children’s mobility and agency in public spaces as well as access to public space has focused on school-aged children. CHILDSPACE specifically examines the conditions and opportunities for younger children to take part in, move within, and make meaning in public spaces and contexts. Central questions include young children’s place, mobility, and access to public spaces, as well as how they create places and meaning within them.
The network was founded in 2024 by Danielle Ekman Ladru, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm University. The starting point was a growing interest among Swedish researchers in issues concerning the youngest children in society, childhood institutions, and public spaces. The network emerged as a response to the need to share research work, thoughts, and ideas. Members include researchers from a variety of disciplines such as child and youth studies, early childhood education, pedagogy, educational sciences, environmental psychology, landscape architecture, philosophy, anthropology, and human geography.
The purpose of the network is to serve as a platform for discussing texts, producing scholarly publications, and applying for research funding. Its aim is to exchange knowledge and learn from one another, to identify and articulate key research themes, and to advance the field both theoretically and methodologically.
The network meets twice per semester. At each meeting, one or several researchers present their projects, publications, or other ideas, followed by group discussions on research applications, collaborative writing, conferences, or various forms of publication.
All researchers studying young children and public spaces—at Swedish or international universities—are welcome to join.
Contact
If you have questions or wish to become a member of the network, please email: danielle.ekman.ladru@buv.su.se
Group description
The network is coordinated by Christine Eriksson and Danielle Ekman Ladru (both at Stockholm University), and Teresa Elkin Postila (at Mid Sweden University).
You can find individual researchers' publications on their respective university profile pages.
Group members
Annika Manni, Umeå University
Christina Ergler, University of Otago, New Zealand.
Christine Eriksson, Stockholm University
Danielle Ekman Ladru, Stockholm University
Fredrika Mårtensson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Jan David Hauck, München Universitet, Tyskland
Jan Varpanen, Linköpings universitet
Jessica Samsioe, Stockholm University
Johanna Annerbäck, Linköping University
Karin Litsner, Uppsala University
Katarina Gustafson, Uppsala University
Klara Dolk, Stockholm University
Natalie Davet, University of Gothenburg
Olga Anatoli Smith, Linköping University
Tarna Kannisto, University of Helsinki
Teresa Elkin Postila, Mid Sweden University
Group members
Group managers
Danielle Ekman Ladru
Universitetslektor
Christine Eriksson
Universitetslektor
