RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2010, 1st-3rd September, London UK
Call for papers:
Spaces designed with/for/by children, young people and families
(Sponsored by Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group)
Organisers
John Horton (The University of Northampton), Pia Christensen University of
Warwick), Sophie Hadfield-Hill (The University of Northampton), Stella Hart
University of Warwick), Peter Kraftl University of Leicester)
About the session
Over the last two decades, children and young people’s involvement in the
design, planning and regulation of spaces has become a prominent ideal in
multifarious and multiscalar policy, educational, institutional and social-cultural
contexts. This session will draw together papers which share a concern with
the kinds of spaces which have been produced – and which are being
produced – as a consequence. In particular, we call for three types of paper.
First: research papers which report on in-depth empirical work in or regarding
any kind of space created with or for or by children, young people or families
in diverse contemporary or historical contexts. Second: methodologically-
reflective papers about the kinds of innovative, collaborative practices (e.g.
between different practitioners and/or between adult practitioners and
younger people) which are required to foster such spaces. Third: broadly-
conceptual papers exploring the theoretical and political implications of such
spaces, their successes and failures, and their discursive location and
idealisation. We welcome papers which are diverse in their disciplinary
background, in their methodological and conceptual orientation, and in the
kinds, scales and locations of spaces and processes under scrutiny. Likewise,
papers may be critical, celebratory, cautionary or visionary in tone.
Papers might deal with one or more of the following topics.
• Case studies of specific design, planning, policy-making or decision-
making processes.
• Evaluative reflection upon the kinds of (e.g. urban, policy,
institutional, education or microgeographical) spaces that result from children
and young people’s involvement in the production of spaces.
• Innovative techniques used in the design, planning and/or regulation
of particular spaces.
• Challenges and opportunities for collaborative work between social
scientists, policy-makers, practitioners and children and young people.
• Methods for working with constituencies of children and young
people typically excluded from participatory practices.
• Barriers and challenges for, and conceptual problems resulting from,
spaces designed with/for/by children and young people
• Political/popular discourses regarding and idealising children and
young people’s involvement in the production of spaces.
Please submit abstracts (no more than 250 words) to John Horton
([log in to unmask]) by Friday 12th February 2010.
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