ABSTRACT

Children have an intrinsic right to urban space. Yet children’s perspectives and agency are largely absent from research and public policy on issues that concern them. Common conceptualisations of children as vulnerable, incompetent, or unruly designate their marginalised status in the city. When gender is added, the deficit approach is reinforced. In this paper, we draw from theoretical and methodological approaches that affirm children’s agency and focus analytical attention on how gendered spatialities are performed. Using cognitive mapping and semi-structured interviews with children aged eleven and twelve in Melbourne, Australia, the study explored the ways in which children’s relationships with their neighbourhoods reflect, reproduce and resist gendered spatialities. We demonstrate that children are skilled ‘spatial agents’, actively producing spatialities with awareness and intention, and clear gendered embodiment. Our analysis indicates the importance of engaging children in urban design and considering intersections of gender, age and power in contemporary cities.

摘要

儿童享有城市空间的固有权利。然而，关于与他们有关的问题的研究和公共政策在很大程度上缺乏儿童的观点和能动性。将儿童视为脆弱、无能或不守规矩的常见概念表明他们在城市中处于边缘地位。当添加性别时，赤字方法得到加强。在这篇论文中，我们借鉴了肯定儿童能动性的理论和方法论方法，并将分析注意力集中在性别空间如何表现上。该研究使用认知图谱和对澳大利亚墨尔本 11 岁和 12 岁儿童的半结构化访谈，探索了儿童与社区的关系反映、复制和抵制性别空间的方式。我们证明儿童是熟练的“空间代理人”，积极地生产具有意识和意图的空间，以及明确的性别化体现。我们的分析表明让儿童参与城市设计并考虑当代城市中性别、年龄和权力的交叉点的重要性。