Research project Sustainable vertical childhoods?
How does "vertical living" affect the organization of children's everyday mobility and play? There is a great need for qualitative knowledge about how family background, diversity in neighborhoods, and area structure influence families' organization of children's mobility and play.
The project examines the consequences of urban densification for families with children. Densification is seen as an important aspect of urban planning to create smarter cities, and this has led to more families living in apartment buildings. Research simultaneously shows that there are connections between densification, heavy traffic, lack of open green spaces, and a reduction in children's mobility in terms of walking, cycling, and outdoor play, which in turn is linked to increased concern for children's health and well-being.
Despite this, children's and families' experiences are still excluded from urban planning, and knowledge about how families with children experience living in apartment buildings is extremely sparse. The everyday organization of children's mobility and play by families is particularly an under-researched area. How does "vertical living" affect the organization of children's everyday mobility and play? There is a great need for qualitative knowledge about how family background, diversity in neighborhoods, and area structure affect families' organization of children's mobility and play.
Project description
The purpose of the project is to investigate how urban families with children living in apartment buildings in three neighborhoods with different socio-economic and ethnic compositions experience their housing in relation to the organization of children's everyday mobility in terms of walking/cycling, exploration, and indoor and outdoor play. A second purpose is to examine families' perspectives on how changes in apartment buildings, neighborhoods, and the larger urban area can facilitate children's everyday mobility in terms of walking/cycling, exploration, and indoor and outdoor play. The questions posed are:
- How do children and parents organize children's mobility in terms of walking/cycling, exploration, and indoor and outdoor play?
- What are the opportunities and challenges of apartment living in terms of organizing children's mobility in terms of walking/cycling, exploration, and indoor and outdoor play, according to children and parents?
- What changes in apartment buildings, neighborhoods, and the larger urban area can facilitate children's mobility in terms of walking/cycling, exploration, and indoor and outdoor play, according to children and parents?
- How can we theoretically understand sustainable urbanism through housing types, neighborhoods, and families' organization of mobility in terms of walking/cycling, exploration, and indoor and outdoor play?
The project examines the organization of children's mobility using several qualitative methods: interviews with children and guardians, ethnography, children's thematic diaries, and photographs. Families' perspectives on how changes in apartment buildings, neighborhoods, and the larger urban area can facilitate children's mobility and play will be studied through focus groups.
The project aims to contribute to a more robust understanding of how to create sustainable urban environments for children and families. It provides new interdisciplinary and empirical knowledge to the research areas of children's mobility and sustainability and has a theoretical approach where human actions and relationships, spatiality, and materiality are understood as intertwined and productive.
Project members
Project managers
Danielle Ekman Ladru
Universitetslektor
Members
Sofia Cele
Docent, universiteteslektor
Tanja Joelsson
Universitetslektor, docent
