Little houses and huts: Children’s “own” places arranged by children of Saint Petersburg
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33910/2687-0223-2022-4-3-183-194Keywords:
children’s places, geography of childhood, children’s houses, children’s huts, institutionalization of childhoodAbstract
In the geography of childhood, places for children are traditionally contrasted with children’s places. The formers are created by adults, while the latter are made by children themselves. For the former, the main guideline is the safety of children, while for the latter it is mystery, creativity and children’s community. The article examines children’s “own” places: houses and huts. The sample is represented by eight places built by children aged from 8 to 11 who are all residents of Saint Petersburg. The empirical materials for the study included transcripts of interviews with children and photographs of children’s places. We analysed the houses and huts in terms of the interaction of children and adults in the process of creating children’s places, the purpose of places, and types of places according to the degree of their mobility.
Among the functions of houses and huts, there are distinguished the function of emancipation from adults, the protective and the educational functions, the function of privacy, individual recreation, communication and play.
The study made it possible to identify (so far very tentatively) the features of the houses and huts built by children from Saint Petersburg and the possible influences of a big city. Therefore, children’s house-building is either displaced to the country houses and cabins or confined to the inside of city apartments.
The article concludes that most of the considered cases are not children’s places created or rebuilt by children for themselves: there is no secrecy of places, there are fewer opportunities for self-reliance, and there is a great participation of adults who can give these places a certain functional significance.
References
ЛИТЕРАТУРА
Осорина, М. В. (2008) Секретный мир детей в пространстве мира взрослых. 4-е изд., доп. СПб.: Питер, 304 с.
Филипова, А. Г., Толвайшис, Л. Л. (2020) Места детские и места для детей. В кн.: А. Г. Филипова (ред.). География детства: междисциплинарный синтез исследовательских подходов и практик. Тематический словарь-справочник. СПб.: Астерион, с. 100–103.
Hackett, A., Procter, L., Seymour, J. (eds.). (2015) Children’s Spatialities: Embodiment, emotion and agency. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Publ., 204 p.
Hart, R. (1979) Children’s experience of place. New York: Irvington Publ., 518 p.
Holloway, S. L., Valentine, G. (2000) Spatiality and the new social studies of childhood. Sociology, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 763–783. https://doi.org/10.1177/S0038038500000468
James, A., Jenks, C., Prout, A. (1998) Theorizing childhood. Cambridge: Polity Press Publ., 256 p.
Matthews, H., Limb, M., Taylor, M. (2005) The “Street” as Third space. In: C. Jenks (ed.). Childhood: Critical concepts in sociology. In 3 vols. Vol. 1. London; New York: Routledge Publ., pp. 253–269.
O’Brien, M. (2003) Regenerating children’s neighbourhoods. What do children want? In: P. Christensen, M. O’Brien (eds.). Children in the city. Home, neighbourhood and community. London; New York: Routledge Publ., pp. 142–161. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203167236-13
Olwig, K. F., Gulløv, E. (2003) Towards an anthropology of children and place. In: K. F. Olwig, E. Gulløv (eds.). Children’s Places: Cross-cultural perspectives. London: Routledge Publ., pp. 1–19.
Rasmussen, K. (2004) Places for children—children’s places. Childhood, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 155–173. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568204043053
REFERENCES
Filipova, A. G., Tolvajshis, L. L. (2020) Mesta detskie i mesta dlya detej [Places for children and children’s places]. In: A. G. Filipova (ed.). Geografiya detstva: mezhdistsiplinarnyj sintez issledovatel’skikh podkhodov i praktik. Tematicheskij slovar’-spravochnik [Geography of childhood: The interdisciplinary synthesis of research approaches and practices. Thematic dictionary-reference]. Saint Petersburg: Asterion Publ., pp. 100–103. (In Russian)
Hackett, A., Procter, L., Seymour, J. (eds.). (2015) Children’s Spatialities: Embodiment, emotion and agency. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Publ., 204 p. (In English)
Hart, R. (1979) Children’s experience of place. New York: Irvington Publ., 518 p. (In English)
Holloway, S. L., Valentine, G. (2000) Spatiality and the new social studies of childhood. Sociology, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 763–783. https://doi.org/10.1177/S0038038500000468 (In English)
James, A., Jenks, C., Prout, A. (1998) Theorizing childhood. Cambridge: Polity Press Publ., 256 p. (In English)
Matthews, H., Limb, M., Taylor, M. (2005) The “Street” as Third space. In: C. Jenks (ed.). Childhood: Critical concepts in sociology. In 3 vols. Vol. 1. London; New York: Routledge Publ., pp. 253–269. (In English)
O’Brien, M. (2003) Regenerating children’s neighbourhoods. What do children want? In: P. Christensen, M. O’Brien (eds.). Children in the city. Home, neighbourhood and community. London; New York: Routledge Publ., pp. 142–161. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203167236-13 (In English)
Olwig, K. F., Gulløv, E. (2003) Towards an anthropology of children and place. In: K. F. Olwig, E. Gulløv (eds.). Children’s Places: Cross-cultural perspectives. London: Routledge Publ., pp. 1–19. (In English)
Osorina, M. V. (2008) Sekretnyj mir detej v prostranstve mira vzroslykh [The secret world of children in the space of the adult world]. 4th ed., comp. Saint Petersburg: Piter Publ., 304 p. (In Russian)
Rasmussen, K. (2004) Places for children—children’s places. Childhood, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 155–173. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568204043053 (In English)
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Irina A. Krylova, Alexandra G. Filipova
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The work is provided under the terms of the Public Offer and of Creative Commons public license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
This license permits an unlimited number of users to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use.
This license retains copyright for the authors but allows others to freely distribute, use, and adapt the work, on the mandatory condition that appropriate credit is given. Users must provide a correct link to the original publication in our journal, cite the authors' names, and indicate if any changes were made.
Copyright remains with the authors. The CC BY 4.0 license does not transfer rights to third parties but rather grants users prior permission for use, provided the attribution condition is met. Any use of the work will be governed by the terms of this license.
