Abstract
Studies over the years on human-environment relationships have revealed a strong assertion that humans learn through engagement with their local places. But due to the increasing degradation of urban environments, there has been a progressive dehumanization of urban space, a dehumanization that has impacted particularly on children and young people who have seen their place-based encounters significantly limited. This chapter reports on the Dapto Dreaming project, a place-based participatory research project in Australia, funded by Stockland urban developers. The project supported young people to take on the role of environmental change agents in order to support a sustainability project in their local area. Using participatory research methods, children and young people from the Horsley community, a small neighborhood in a suburb south of Sydney, documented themselves walking and knowing the land, learning the history and geography of their place, and engaging with the materiality of the environment through their bodies. They used cameras, drawings, and mental maps and shared stories of their encounters with the human and nonhuman world. Drawing loosely on theories of place, the study focused on children’s environmental encounters, place accessibility, and the affordances within places. Rather than impose an adult-centered theoretical deconstruction of the data, children collated, shared, and analyzed their own data. Through this process, children recognized how place could be responsive and specific to their encounters, and when planning a friendly and sustainable neighborhood, they sought to ensure it would be afforded those same qualities. More broadly, this case study reveals that children who are provided real-life place-based projects can adopt significant roles as environmental change agents.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Chandler, D. (2013). The world of attachment? The post-humanist challenge to freedom and necessity. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 41(3), 516–534.
Chawla, L. (Ed.). (2002). Growing up in an urbanising world. London: Earthscan.
Chawla, L. (2007). Childhood experiences associated with care for the natural world: A theoretical framework for empirical results. Children Youth and Environments, 17(4), 145–170.
Chawla, L. (2009). Growing up green: Becoming an agent of care for the natural world. The Journal of Developmental Processes, 4(1), 6–23.
Connell, S., Fien, J., Lee, J., Sykes, H. & Yencken, D. (1999). ‘If it doesn’t directly affect you, you don’t think about it’: a qualitative study of young people’s environmental attitudes in two Australian cities. Environmental Education Research, 5(1), 95–113.
Danby, S., & Farrell, A. (2004). Accounting for young children’s competence in educational research: New perspectives on research ethics. Australian Educational Researcher, 31, 35–49.
Driskell, D. (2002). Creating better cities with children and youth. London: Earthscan/UNESCO.
Francis, M., & Lorenzo, R. (2006). Children and city design: Proactive process and the ‘renewal’ of childhood. In C. Spencer & M. Blades (Eds.), Children and their environments: Learning, using and designing spaces. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Freeman, C., & Tranter, P. (2012). Children and their urban environments. London: Earthscan.
Fried, M. (2000). Continuities and discontinuities of place. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 20, 193–205.
Gill, T. (2007). No fear: Growing up in a risk averse society. London: Calouste-Gulbenkian Foundation.
Gleeson, B., & Snipe, N. (Eds.). (2006). Creating child friendly cities: Reinstating kids in the city. Oxon: Routledge.
Gruenewald, D., & Smith, G. (2008). Creating a movement to ground learning in place. In D. Gruenewald & G. Smith (Eds.), Place-based education in the global age. New York: Taylor and Francis Group.
Gruenwald, D. (2003). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place-conscious education. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 619–654.
Hacking Barratt, E., Scott, W., & Barratt, R. (2007). Children’s research into their local environment: Stevenson’s gap, and possibilities for the curriculum. Environmental Education Research, 13(2), 225–244.
Hart, R. (1997). Children’s participation: The theory and practice of involving young citizens in community development and environmental care. London: Earthscan.
Heft, H. (1988). Affordances of children’s environments: A functional approach to environmental description. Children Environmental Quarterly, 5, 29–37.
Hillman, M., Adams, J., & Whitelegg, J. (1990). One false move…A study of children’s independent mobility. London: PSI.
Jack, G. (2010). Place matters: The significance of place attachment for children’s well-being. British Journal of Social Work, 40, 755–771.
Jensen, B. B., Kofoed, J., Uhrenholt, G., & Vognsen, C. (1995). Environmental education in Denmark – The Jaegerspris project (Publication No. 31). Copenhagen: The Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, Research Centre for Environmental and Health Education.
Jensen, B. B., & Schnack, K. (1997). The action competence approach in environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 3(2), 163–178.
Kytta, M. (2004). The extent of children’s independent mobility and the number of actualized affordances as criteria for child-friendly environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24(2), 179–198.
Kytta, M. (2006). Environmental child-friendliness in light of the Bullerby model. In C. Spencer & M. Blades (Eds.), Children and their environments: Learning, using and designing spaces. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lloyd, A., & Gray, T. (2014). Place-based outdoor learning and environmental sustainability within Australian Primary Schools. Journal of Sustainability Education, October 1st, 2014.
Louv, R. (2006). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
Lynch, K. (1977). Growing up in cities. UNESCO, MIT.
Malone, K. (2001). Children, youth and sustainable cities (special edition editorial). Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, 6(1), 5–12.
Malone, K. (2006). Research by children: Are we there yet? Keynote address and published paper Researching Children, Open Conference, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 25–28 June.
Malone, K. (2007). The Bubble-wrap generation: Children growing up in walled gardens. Environmental Education Researcher, 13(4), 513–528.
Malone, K. (2008a). Every experience matters: An evidence based research report on the role of learning outside the classroom for children’s whole development from birth to eighteen years, Report commissioned by Farming and Countryside Education for UK Department Children, School and Families, University of Wollongong.
Malone, K. (2008b). How child-friendly is my community? A study of the child friendliness of the City of Brimbank. Research report for the Smith Family and the City of Brimbank, University of Wollongong, Wollongong.
Malone, K. A. (2010). Freeing children to contribute: Building child-friendly cities in the Asia Pacific region. Childhood Matters, 115, 20–25.
Malone, K. (2012). “The future lies in our hands”: Children as researchers and environmental change agents in designing a child-friendly neighbourhood. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, 18(3), 372–395.
Malone, K. A. (2013). “The future lies in our hands”: Children as researchers and environmental change agents in designing a child-friendly neighbourhood. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, 18(3), 372–395.
Malone, K. (2015). Children’s rights and the crisis of rapid urbanization: Exploring the United Nations Post 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda and the potential role for UNICEF’s Child Friendly Cities Initiative. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 23, 1–20.
Malone, K. A., & Rudner, J. (2011). Global perspectives on children’s independent mobility: A socio-cultural comparisons and theoretical discussion on children’s lives in four countries in Asia and Africa. Global Studies of Childhood, 1(3), 243–259.
Malone, K., & Tranter, P. (2003). School grounds as sites for learning: Making the most of environmental opportunities. Environmental Education Researcher, 9(4), 283–303.
Mackett, R., Brown, B., Gong, Y., Kitazawa, K., & Paskins, J. (2007). The influence of independent mobility on children’s walking patterns and behaviour. Paper presented at the Walk 21 8th international conference on walking and liveable communities: Putting pedestrians first.
Marr, P., & Malone, K (2007). What about me? Children as co-researchers, Australian Association for Research in Education Conference Fremantle, Perth, Dec 2007.
Massey, D. (2005). For space. London: Sage.
Matthews, H. (2001). Making sense of place. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Moore, R. (1986). Childhood domain. London: Croom Helm Ltd.
Orr, D. (1992). Ecological literacy. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Peacock, A. (2006). Changing minds, The lasting impact of school trips: A study of the long-term impact of sustained relationships between schools and the National Trust via the Guardianship scheme, Report from The Innovation Centre, University of Exeter.
Planning Institute of Australia. (2007). Child friendly communities: National position statement. Canberra: PIA.
Raittila, R. (2012). With children in their lived place: Children’s action as research data. International Journal of Early Years Education, 20(3), 270–279.
Rautio, P. (2013a). Children who carry stones in their pockets: On autotelic material practices in everyday life. Children’s Geographies, 11(4), 394–408.
Rautio, P. (2013b). Mingling and imitating in producing spaces for knowing and being: Insights from a Finnish study of child-matter intra-action. Childhood. doi:10.1177/0907568213496653.
Rennie, L. J., & McClafferty, T. P. (1996). Science centres and science learning. Studies In Science Education, 27, 53–98.
Rissotto, A., & Giuliani, V. (2006). Learning neighbourhood environments: The loss of experience in a modern world. In C. Spencer & M. Blades (Eds.), Children and their environments: Learning, using and designing spaces. Cambridge: CUP.
Scannell, L., & Gifforde, R. (2014). Comparing theories of interpersonal and place attachment. In L. Manzo & P. Devine- Wright (Eds.), Place attachment: Advances in theory, methods and applications. London: Routledge.
Schusler, T. M., Krasny, M. E., Peters, S. P., & Decker, D. J. (2009). Developing citizens and communities through youth environmental action. Environmental Education Research, 15(1), 111–127.
Sipe, N., Buchanan, N., & Dodson, J. (2006). Children in the urban environment: A review of research. In B. Gleeson & N. Sipe (Eds.), Creating child friendly cities. Abingdon: Routledge.
Smith, G. (2002). Place-based education: Learning to be where we are. Phi Delta Kappan, 83, 584–594.
Smith, G. (2007). Place-based education: Breaking through the constraining regularities of public school. Environmental Education Research, 13(2), 189–207.
Sobel, D. (1996). Beyond ecophobia: Reclaiming the heart in nature education. Great Barrington: The Orion Society.
Somerville, M., Davies, B., Power, K., Gannon, S., & deCarteret, P. (2011). Place pedagogy change. Sydney: Sense Publishing.
Stanley, F., Prior M., & Richardson, S. (2005). Children of the lucky country? Sydney: Macmillan Australia.
Stockland. (2010), Brooks reach: Child friendly communities research and community engagement project brief. Stockland, Sydney.
Stone, M. (2005). “It changed everything we thought we could do”: The STRAW project. In M. Stone & Z. Barlow (Eds.), Ecological literacy: Educating our children for a sustainable world. San Francisco: Sierra Club books.
Stone, M. (2009). Smart by nature: Schooling for sustainability. Centre for Ecoliteracy, Watershed Media.
Tuck, E., & McKenzie, M. (2014). Place in research: Theory, methodology, and methods. New York: Routledge.
UNICEF. (2001). Partnerships to create child-friendly cities: Programming for child rights with local authorities. New York: UNICEF/IULA.
Uzzell, D. (1999). Education for environmental action in the community: New roles and relation-ships. Cambridge Journal of Education, 29(1), 397–413.
van Vliet, W. (1985). The role of housing type, household density, and neighborhood density in peer interaction and social adjustment. In J. F. Wohlwill & W. van Vliet (Eds.), Habitats for children: The impacts of density (pp. 165–200). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Vichealth. (2010). Nothing but fear itself. Melbourne: Vichealth, Victorian Government.
Waite, S. (2011). Children learning outside of the classroom: From birth to eleven. London: Sage.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this entry
Cite this entry
Malone, K. (2016). Children’s Place Encounters: Place-Based Participatory Research to Design a Child-Friendly and Sustainable Urban Development. In: Ansell, N., Klocker, N., Skelton, T. (eds) Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 8. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-54-5_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-54-5_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-4585-53-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-4585-54-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences