Child accessible societies? Children’s agency in planning (more accessible) public spaces

Session Description: Children’s everyday life is constituted by interdependent movement, within and between different public/private, virtual and institutional spaces. Their movement further relate to e.g. cultural conceptions of parenthood and childhood, as well as to the spatial, social and institutional infrastructures children navigate in their daily lives. Knowledge on children’s play, and physical movement in public space, between for example home, play, school, leisure activities and friends, is central for the development of child oriented planning practices. Planning for the 'child accessible society' might benefit children and the population at large, and is of major importance for both the environmental and social sustainability transition. But current societal trends such as centralization, digitalization, and automatization, and also public planning ideals, norms, and traditions are almost exclusively produced from adult perspectives - and are furthermore imbued by an economic, rather than user, rationale. Children’s perspectives are very seldom sought, or taken in very late in planning or policy processes. The aim of this session is to critically investigate and problematize what role children, and their experiences, ideas and knowledge have in planning and policymaking processes affecting the development of public space, concerning for example different geographies, scales, built environment, accessibility, mobility and institutions.

We therefore welcome contributions to the session, on topics related to (but not limited to) for example:

• child friendly planning

• age-sensitive urban accessibility

• children’s participation in urban policy and planning

• methods and tools for children’s participation in research, policy and planning

• theoretical, methodological and practical urban interventions for/by/with children

Mobility

For the Mobile Lives Forum, mobility is understood as the process of how individuals travel across distances in order to deploy through time and space the activities that make up their lifestyles. These travel practices are embedded in socio-technical systems, produced by transport and communication industries and techniques, and by normative discourses on these practices, with considerable social, environmental and spatial impacts.

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Movement

Movement is the crossing of space by people, objects, capital, ideas and other information. It is either oriented, and therefore occurs between an origin and one or more destinations, or it is more akin to the idea of simply wandering, with no real origin or destination.

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Extended deadline for submitting the abstract is April 12th 2024, and should be sent to Linnea Eriksson linnea.eriksson@vti.se. Papers should be submitted directly to the conference as well, no later than April 15, 2024. Conference registration opens February 1, 2024. For information on the conference please go to https://ngm2024.com/