Call for Papers
International Geographical Congress 2012
Cologne, 26th – 30th August 2012
IGU Commission ‘Health and Environment’
Organisers: Christina Ergler (The University of Auckland) and Robin Kearns (The University of Auckland)
‘Ground truths: Advancing children’s healthy development through including children as environmental researchers’
In the 1990s a range of researchers highlighted the fact that children are experts about their own lives and experiences of places. Informed by feminist and postmodern thought most of these studies promoted work with children instead of on their behalf. Children became participants and co-researchers and some studies explored the potential of children as researchers to overcome the (unintentional) objectification of children through the choice of methodology. Consequently, qualitative, child-centred methods (e.g. use of in-depth interviews, elicited drawings) have been developed, refined and further explored. However, despite many fine attempts to integrate children into the research process Kellet et al.’s (2004, p. 329) statement that “participatory research is generally adult-led, adult-designed and conceived from an adult perspective” is still the norm. While children have been reconstructed as ‘participant’ rather than ‘research object’ or ‘respondent’, researchers invariably remain in control of the research design and process, which often leaves no adjustment or time for participants’ own interests.
Children are not only literally closer to the ground, but they are also closer to their environment. They are able to reveal a genuine child-perspective on the world to address, for example, environmental and health issues. So how might we respond methodologically to work with children on the major environmental and health problems we are facing?
This session asks whether cooperation with children might act as a key imperative for the environmental and health challenges of our time. Contributors will draw upon recent theoretical approaches to, or case studies about, researching children’s environments. In sum, through incorporating research that has collaborated with children, the session will seek directions towards more healthy, sustainable and child-friendly cities and regions. Through thinking about children’s environments at a very broad level, this session will open up a space within which we might push our understandings and conceptions of healthy environments closer to the ground than our current approaches permit. We invite theoretical and empirically-focused papers which promote or use methodologies that reveal children’s environments, and ultimately speak to the recognition that a child-friendly world is a world that is healthy for all.
We particularly encourage the submission of papers from diverse socio-cultural contexts and perspectives which explore the following themes:
· Beyond passive participation:
§ innovative approaches collaborating with children on the design of a research project
§ innovative approaches to integrate children in the research process or data analysis
§ Pushing theoretical and methodological boundaries
· Ground truth: child centred case study knowledge
§ addressing environmental health issues: climate change, environmental degradation (air or water quality, sun exposure, …), urban sprawl and activity (physical activity, play, independent mobility, active travel, …), disasters, everyday practices and sustainability,
§ addressing health issues: injuries, communicable and non-communicable diseases (e.g. malaria, dengue, obesity, HIV/Aids, …), risks, disabilities, dietary behavior, mental health, well-being
· Healthy, sustainable and child-friendly cities and regions: children’s input in
§ policies, planning, architectural design, communities, schools
Abstracts should be submitted to the submission system of the IGC (www.igc2012.org<http://www.igc2012.org>) by December 15, 2011.
