Freiburg children's study

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The Freiburg Children's Study, published in 1993, examined the conditions of action space of children and the associated effects on their everyday life on a broad empirical basis . The general statement of the study was: "There is hardly a factor that influences everyday life and the development of children more than the spatial design of the living environment and the associated opportunities for free play" .

background

The study continued the tradition of “socio-ecological childhood research”, in which the historical development of childhood is described primarily as a change in the experience of space. Children are less and less able to play unsupervised with their peers in the immediate vicinity . Your everyday life is increasingly organized and takes place indoors. This loss of play and action space has negative consequences for the development of children and everyday life for families.

The methods used in the Freiburg Children's Study open up a wide range of options for systematically evaluating the living environment of children and for analyzing the influence on children's everyday lives. The study produced a wealth of practical recommendations for action and instruments for children's policy, ranging from playground design to urban and transport planning to monitoring the living environment. The empirical investigation of the conditions of the action space makes the needs of children visible and helps to articulate them in public and thus also to introduce them into political decision-making processes. The approach of the Freiburg Children's Study was not limited to the empirical analysis of the existing play opportunities and everyday life, but built bridges into practice and promoted lobbying for children's interests and the direct participation of children.

Accordingly, the Freiburg children's study found a broad response in practice: from municipal children's offices and children's organizations to traffic, gardening and urban planning offices. The children's study has stimulated a variety of initiatives, from traffic calming to the conversion of playgrounds to the child-friendly design of new parts of the city. The strong response in practice has not only been demonstrated by numerous publications and lectures at specialist events, but has also been vividly captured by two documentaries.

study

  • Blinkert, B. (1993): Children's action spaces in the city. A study commissioned by the city of Freiburg (Freiburg children's study). Pfaffenweiler

literature

  • Blinkert, B. (1997): Children's Action Spaces in the Country. A study on behalf of the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Environment (with the assistance of Christian Achnitz, Katja Schwab, Jürgen Spiegel, Lothar Zischke). Pfaffenweiler
  • Blinkert, B. (2001): Destroyed City - Destroyed Childhood? in: Umwelt.Medizin.Gesellschaft, no. 3, pp. 232–241.
  • Blinkert, B. (2004) Quality of the City for Children: Chaos and Order Children, Youth and Environments 14 (2)
  • Blinkert, B. Reidl K. Schemel H.-J (2008): Nature experience spaces in populated areas - results of a research project, in: Schemel, H.-J., Wilke, T. (Ed.): Children and nature in the city . Spielraum Natur: A handbook for local policy and planning as well as parents and Agenda 21 initiatives; Series of publications by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, BfN scripts 230. Bonn-Bad Godesberg.
  • Reidl, K. Schemel HJ. Blinkert B. (2007): Spaces of Nature Experience - An Approach to Communicating Nature in Urban Areas, in: Dettmar, J., Werner, P. (Ed.), Perspectives and Significance of Urban Nature for Urban Development, Conturec 2, series of publications by the Urban Ecology Competence Network, p 141-152. Darmstadt.

Film documentation on the study and its implementation

  • Janczyk, E. (1994): Children's action spaces in the city. A film about the Freiburg child study. Funded by the City of Freiburg and the Baden-Württemberg State Foundation.
  • Janczyk, E. (1997): Playgrounds of the Future. Funded by the Baden-Württemberg State Foundation.

Web links