Session Information
Contribution
Paper to be considered for a joint paper session between networks Histories of Education and Research on Children's Rights. Papers P367, 350, 142 and 949 to be scheduled in this session, with Bruno Vanobbergen (R875) to be session Chair. Studies into children's neighbourhoods approach this environment often here and now; isolated in time and social context. The results of these - mainly design-oriented - studies tend to describe the different ways in which different groups of children make use of their neighbourhood; or the actual physical, social and demographical features of a specific neighbourhood and to compare these with predefined (often 'child-friendly') checklists. The criticism about this decontextualized approach also applies to studies into children's rights ( Cf. the proposed abstract of Didier Reynaert, Maria Bouverne-De Bie & Stijn Vandevelde: "The Convention on the Rights of the Child becomes 18!") . The effect of this approach is that the dominant discourse on child-friendliness has been largely centred on the question what a child-friendly neighbourhood should look like, instead of the more fundamental question about children's actual position in the neighbourhood. Furthermore, the question about the features of a child-friendly neighbourhood is increasingly answered by referring to the children's right to play as an indisputable right. Hardly any attention is given in these studies to the comprehension of how the physical, social and mental construction of a certain neighbourhood evolves; how spatial practices are socially, culturally and historically determined; and how these practices interfere with childhood policies. A more reflexive approach to the study of children's neighbourhoods is therefore needed. In our study on the social-educational meaning of children's neighbourhood we try to analyse children's neighbourhoods in a broader context. The main question is about how the neighbourhood - as an actual socializing context in which children grow up - contributes to the social and cultural opportunities of children. The research is set up as a case study in three contrasting neighbourhoods in the city of Ghent; Belgium. In each case three interrelating maps of the neighbourhood are reconstructed: a socio-spatial map, representing what each neighbourhood looks like, both socially and physically, and how this has evolved through time; the mental maps representing how residents have given meaning to their neighbourhood and the changes within it; and the personal maps representing children's actual presence in their neighbourhood.Oral histories are used in this study as one source of information. For these oral histories, a group of residents is selected in each neighbourhood, who have lived in that neighbourhood as a child, 30 years ago, and who are presently living in that same neighbourhood. We analyse what children's neighbourhood looked like 30 years ago in each case, according to these residents; what has changed in children's presence in the neighbourhood in their view, and how they have given meaning to these changes. Continuity - discontinuity is an important element in the reconstruction of the oral histories. What has changed in children's neighbourhoods and their presence in it, and what has essentially stayed the same? Therefore, the photographs that were taken by children representing their actual presence in the neighbourhood are also used in the oral history research. In the end, this research might also contribute to the possible design of neighbourhoods, but it serves in the first place to inspire the reflection upon the actual circumstances within which children live and the ways in which children deal with these circumstances. We don't kow yet
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