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Children. Risk Mobility Urban Space Professor Pia Christensen Institute of Education University of Warwick, UK Ideas Café 14 th October 2008. Background. Children’s lost mobility A time of heightened risk awareness Parental anxiety: ‘stranger-danger’, violence and increasing traffic
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Children Risk Mobility Urban Space Professor Pia Christensen Institute of Education University of Warwick, UK Ideas Café 14th October 2008
Background Children’s lost mobility • A time of heightened risk awareness • Parental anxiety: ‘stranger-danger’, violence and increasing traffic • Greater complexity of children’s everyday lives • Concern with children’s and young people’s risk- taking • Children’s (and adults) risk engagement is an everyday activity and management a vital competence and resource • Change in children’s activities - from physical active to sedentary inactive • Obesity and child health • Sustainability and environmental change • Contemporary cities - unfriendly places for children - citizenship • Later street-debut – social and geographical incompetence
Children and Mobility Methods: Ethnography: Children’s own perspectives - experiences, understandings and meanings GPS tracking and SMS-questionnaire via mobile-phone: Mapping mobility patterns – in actual time
“The more cars, the safer it is … really!” Boy, 10 year’s old
Why do children choose the large heavily trafficked roads? Fear of Strangers (adults, young people, dogs) • child molester • assailant • kidnapper Social reasons - companionship ”Because my friends walk that way” Pragmatic reasons • Time: ‘When I’m in a hurry’
Children’s Risk Lansdscapes • Accident prevention and urban planning need to connect with children’s risk landscapes and practices
Children’s collective mobility: • Children seek companionship through movement (especially with other children) - to and from school and in and around the neighborhood. • The children enjoyed the company of others and the (feeling of) safety that the collectivity provided.
An open question for research on children’s mobility: A means to increase the monitoring and surveillance of children? or A means to create visibility of children’s mobility patterns and increase their influence on urban planning and the recognition of children as citizens in the city?