EP-2022-WK-06
Project leader: Karen S. Cuevas
NGO La Reconquista Peatonal, University of Chile, Chile
Partners:
- Rosanna Forray Claps, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile)
- Soledad Martínez Rodríguez, Universidad de Los Lagos
- Gerardo Mora Rivera, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
- Daniel Muñoz Zech,University of Oxford
- Álvaro Ramoneda F., Universidad de Barcelona, España
- Consuelo Araneda Díaz, Technische Univerität Berlin
- Valentina Pérez Morales, ONG La Reconquista Peatonal
- Isidora Bilbao, Universidad Alberto Hurtado
Abstract
Children and adolescents’ walking practices are influenced by their specific experiences, which differ from adults, and are grounded on context and culture. However, widespread adultist assumptions have caused a gap of knowledge on the walking experiences and practices of children and adolescents, as well as other benefits of walking for their social life, learning, and overall everyday experiences. In addition, studies on children and adolescents’ walking practices have tended to ignore cultural and socio-environmental differences between the Global South and the Global North, as well as the diversity and heterogeneity within groups of children and adolescents, disregarding their potential for designing culturally and gender relevant public policies for walking promotion. To address this problem, we propose a study that uses an intersectional approach and participatory methods to explore the walking experiences of groups of children and adolescents from three different cities: Berlin (Germany), Coyhaique (Chile) and Santiago (Chile). Using an intersectional perspective, we will describe and analyze how walking in different urban contexts involves different forms of learning and sociality for children and adolescents. The research is exploratory, qualitative, and essentially descriptive given that its objective is to characterize the everyday experience of children and adolescents in the three chosen cities. The research will concentrate on two aspects: the experience of moving around the city and the perceptions and representations of everyday spaces. The design of the methodology accommodates the needs and forms of participation of the group of participants. This study will contribute to the field of walking studies by addressing the knowledge gap about children and adolescent walking practices from an intersectional perspective. I will also provide practical suggestions to improve public policyoriented to promote walking among children and adolescents.