The Child-Friendly Neighbourhoods project


Category
children, play, transport, urban design
Organisation
University of Westminster
Year
2017-ongoing

The child-friendly neighbourhoods project explores the factors that affect children’s experiences of their neighbourhoods and how these impact on their well-being.

The project is fully funded by the University of Westminster as part of Holly’s PhD, and is supervised by Dr Rachel Aldred and Ben Shaw, who previously directed the Policy Studies Institute and lead recent research on children’s independent mobility. The project takes a predominantly qualitative approach to the research. It is based within urban studies and transport, but cuts across various other disciplines including transport, planning, environmental psychology and geography.

The Child-Friendly Neighbourhoods project
The Child-Friendly Neighbourhoods project
The Child-Friendly Neighbourhoods project

Holly has worked closely with small groups of children from three school in Hackney, East London. She has gained an in depth understanding of their lives in their neighbourhoods, and has explored how their experiences of their neighbourhood affects both their mental well-being and physical health. This has been done via a range of methods, including walking tours, diary writing, photography and group workshops.

Fieldwork was completed in spring/summer 2019 and results and analysis will be published here as they are written up.