Encouraging play in the natural environment: a child-focused case study of Forest School

There is concern that children are becoming disengaged from the natural environment and are not being afforded the opportunities to play in such environments. To examine children's perceptions, knowledge and experiences of play in the natural environment, 17 children from one school participated in small focus groups before and after a 12-week Forest School that took place within a school woodland area. Using two qualitative approaches, we found that Forest School had a positive influence on children's natural play and their knowledge of the natural world around them.     

Participating together: dialogic space for children and architects in the design process

Typically enmeshed in the ‘voice’ perspective within children’s participation debates, there are currently sporadic insights into designer–child creative dialogue. Drawing on the findings of a Leverhulme Trust-funded research project, this paper articulates moments of dialogue between architects and children in spatial design processes, whose spatial and symbolic qualities help to understand the interactions and meeting of cultures. Several authors have discussed the transformational potential for adults and children to ‘co-author’ identities in dialogical contexts. The paper builds on this body of research to suggest that design dialogue offers the space, literally and metaphorically, for children and architects to participate together. Identifying the qualities of the dialogic design space as potentially present in children’s and adults’ everyday cultures and interdependent relations, it is proposed that this dialogical framework might diversify architects’ and children’s roles in the design process and enrich practices and perceptions of design participation.     

Children's experiences of participating in research: emotional moments together?

This paper reflects upon emotional moments in research with children and young people. In particular, we seek to contribute to the now-extensive literature on emotions in social scientific research practice by: (i) attempting to acknowledge the often-overlooked emotions experienced by children and young people whilst participating in research; (ii) highlighting the complex, multiperspectival nature of emotions in research. We suggest that these complexities can, simultaneously be problematic and an opportunity to celebrate the achievement of doing research together.     

‘Looked-after’ young people's voices an actor-network theory analysis

This article offers an empirical case study of ways in which ‘looked-after’ young people responded in focus groups about taking part in a survey task. These research participants are deemed by the state as in need of protection. We demonstrate that despite their vulnerable status, they are immensely resilient and capable of contributing to debates about research participation. Through the application of actor-network theory, we outline conglomerations of actor-networks involved with the materiality of their agency.     

Diagnosis versus Dialogue: Oral Testimony and the Study of Pediatric Pain

Abstract: Through the perspectives of the children, this essayexamines the communication between pediatric pain patients andtheir doctors. Based upon the oral history responses of thirty-twopatients with chronic pain present for evaluation at the PediatricPain Clinic at UCLA, oral testimony was employed to uncovera wide range of topics related to a child's experience withpain such as family dynamics, how and when pain became a life-changingfactor, coping strategies, and external sources that contributeto the child's understanding of pain. Most important, childrenwere encouraged to explain what it was like to be in pain, notonly to describe symptoms but also to share their dreams andhopes, their fears and uncertainties—as well as the placeof pain in their world.     

Exploring and Implementing Participatory Action Research

This paper explores the research method of participatory action research, first by examining the roots of this approach and then analysing the shift to using more participatory approaches than in former years. It begins by considering the reasoning and theoretical underpinning for adopting this approach and provides an overview of the steps to be undertaken when implementing participatory action research. The latter section of the paper presents an example and suggests how participatory action research might have been used instead for a study that utilized open-ended questionnaires undertaken in geography. Finally, tips on how to use it are proposed along with a consideration of the challenges and opportunities.     

Causal Assessment in Small‐N Policy Studies

The identification of cause‐and‐effect relationships plays an indispensable role in policy research, both for applied problem solving and for building theories of policy processes. Historical process tracing has emerged as a promising method for revealing causal mechanisms at a level of precision unattainable through statistical techniques. Yet historical analyses often produce dauntingly complex causal explanations, with numerous factors emerging as necessary but insufficient causes of an outcome. This article describes an approach that renders complex causal narratives more analytically tractable by establishing measurement criteria for ranking the relative importance of component causes. By focusing on subjectively useful measurement attributes, the approach is well suited to the policy sciences' unique combination of explicitly normative aspirations and a commitment to the systematic assessment of causal claims.     

Building Bridges of Trust: Child Transports from Finland to Sweden during the Second World War

Seventy thousand children were moved to Sweden from Finland during the Second World War with the purpose of giving them a break from the calamities of war. Moving children for this reason was common practice in the Western world during the twentieth century. Officially, the motives have always been humanitarian, but political motives have often played an important role — commonly, to foster suitable citizens within planned societies. Political goals were important in the moving of Finnish children, but in a different way. In this article, I suggest that the children were used as ‘commodities of compassion’ in a Swedish politics of indemnification.     

试论古代中国书法与地理环境

中国书法作为一种独特的文化艺术现象,其形成与发展和地理环境密切相关。本文通过对古代中国地理位置的闭塞性、自然环境南北差异性、人文环境中特有的汉字与毛笔因素以及人文环境内部的复杂性的分析研究,论述了古代中国书法形成与发展的基础,揭示了中国书法封闭稳定性、南北差异性、风格多样性与地理环境(自然环境和人文环境)的客观关联。     

Negotiating change: working with children and their employers to transform child domestic work in Iringa,Tanzania

This paper documents the practical and action-oriented findings of an investigation into child domestic work undertaken in Iringa, Tanzania from 2005 to 2007. It provides an overview of the experiences of both child domestic workers and their employers, before discussing their suggestions for how child domestic working arrangements may be improved. The latter sections of the paper relate the attempts to regulate child domestic work that emerged from such dialogue. In providing detailed information on that process, the paper is positioned within the field of action research and resists the boundary frequently applied between academia and activism. It also moves beyond the tendency – observed in many existing studies of child (domestic) work – to document problems without proposing solutions. The regulatory focus of the project is theoretically supported by a social constructionist reading of the situation facing (child) domestic workers in Iringa (and elsewhere). Domestic workers have been discursively constructed as ‘one of the family’ rather than employees. This paper posits that the exploitation of child domestic workers relies on such constructions, and that improved regulation of this employment sector may offer an opportunity to discursively and tangibly reconstruct child domestic work as ‘real work’. Although formulated in the Tanzanian context, the recommendations are of broader geographical relevance.     

参与式摄影在西方人文地理学中的应用和启示

参与式摄影在近十年来受到西方人文地理学研究的关注。这种研究方法要求被研究者在给定的主题下主动拍摄照片或视频,以具象化其日常生活和活动路径,从而展现其动态的、身体化的、非表征化的行为过程。这一方法不仅能促使研究者和被研究者之间的有效沟通,还能唤起被研究者的情感和记忆,从而促进调研的开展。本研究通过对西方人文地理学研究中相关文献的梳理,对参与式摄影的主要类型、步骤及其在西方人文地理学研究中的应用范围、优势和局限性等进行了介绍,并梳理了参与式摄影在西方人文地理学研究中的应用价值和意义。在此基础上,本研究指出国内未来研究可应用参与式摄影方法的三个方向:(1)边缘群体和少数族群的地方感及其对地方意义的建构;(2)日常生活和微观空间地理研究;(3)社会现象和生活环境的变化对人们地方认同的影响。     

Child experiences as street traders in Peru: contributing to a reappraisal for working children

By exploring the experiences of over a hundred child traders in Cusco, this research provides an insight into the more everyday circumstances of children's work in developing countries. The working conditions of child traders raise serious concerns, including: dangers of accidents, theft and abuse; shortage of time for play; and some disruption to education. Nevertheless, the positives of trading work are substantial. Although the children feel that they have to work, they gain enjoyment and economic empowerment. Moreover, they display a certain self esteem and confidence in the knowledge of their trading skills, and a spatial awareness of the best trading sites, demonstrating agency in their choice of trading locations. The findings suggest that international policy, which emphasises universal condemnation and prohibition of child work, requires revision. Such policy should be replaced by a more flexible approach, which recognises the benefits of children's work and embraces supportive protection for children engaged in the lighter forms of work such as trading.     

新视角下的儿童社会化研究:以多元文化为价值取向

文化学和多元文化取向对儿童社会性发展研究产生了全面而深刻的影响。从文化视角透视儿童的社会性发展和社会性发展进程,拓宽了儿童社会性发展研究视野;以多元文化为主线贯穿于儿童社会性发展研究,倡导多元文化的差异共生,为基于多元文化情境下的儿童社会性发展研究提供了新的方法论和研究策略。     

对古城自然-文化生态环境空间结构特质的研究--以青海省同仁(国家级)历史文化名城保护规划为例

本文研究的目标是以整体的观念、环境的观念、综合及多视角的观念为理论基础,运用系统(层次)构成分析法对特殊自然环境与文化背景下同仁历史文化名城的自然—文化生态环境空间结构特质进行研究,为古城的保护规划奠定基础,通过保护规划使古城的自然—文化生态环境空间结构特质得以保护与传承。     

建成环境对居民社区参与的影响机制分析——以南京市为例

社区参与是社区规划建设的重要内容,对于社区参与的探索正如火如荼的开展。而建成环境作为影响居民社区参与的重要因素,如何通过社区建成环境的营建促进居民社区参与引起了学者的注意。但是当前关于建成环境对居民社区参与的复杂影响机制的研究有限。本文结合南京市33个社区的问卷调研数据,通过结构方程模型探讨了建成环境对居民社区参与的影响机制。研究结果发现,内生变量之间,客观建成环境对居民社区参与无直接影响,但是客观建成环境分别通过感知建成环境和社会资本的中介效应影响居民社区参与。另外,感知建成环境对居民的社区参与有直接影响,并同时通过社会资本的中介效应对居民社区参与产生间接影响。外生变量对内生变量影响方面,社区类型、性别、家庭年收入、学历和年龄对居民社区参与存在总体影响。研究结果揭示了社区建成环境对居民社区参与的影响机制,为社区规划中如何促进居民的社区参与提供了参考。     

Earning their keep: child workers at the Birmingham Asylum for the Infant Poor, 1797–1852

This article examines the attitudes of the Guardians of the Poor in Birmingham towards childhood and child labour from the end of the eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. Utilising minutes of meetings for the Birmingham Asylum for the Infant Poor, it finds that children were removed from the workhouse to separate accommodation with workshops sited on the premises so that children as young as five years old could become economic contributors to their own welfare. It argues that over the course of five decades, pauper children made significant contributions to Birmingham finances.