Children's place. Spatial experiences of children in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires

Abstract:

In this paper we recovered some perceptions about the neighbourhood inhabited by the children who attend the Merendero Los Pibes from Villa París, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. The concern to register their own memory about their spatial experiences was triggered by the municipal public works that began in mid-2021. In this process, children's own dynamics and their use of communal spaces were not considered, nor was their participation in decision-making promoted. In the article, children's everyday knowledge and the different forms of appropriation of public and community spaces were reported, following the idea of “places for, with and of the children's” (Gülgönen y Corona 2019). The contributions of the geography of childhood and the anthropology of childhood structured the research, based on a committed-research methodology.

Keywords:
Children; Neighbourhood; Spatial experiences; Participation; Adultcentrism