About grandparents, grandchildren and cities: intergenerational relationships and urban experiences in childhood

This article analyses the urban experiences of children regarding spending time with their grandparents, trying to understand three main aspects: how children perceive distances and their movement in the city and between cities when they visit their grandparents; how the geographical distances interfere with socializing and with emotional closeness between these two generations, and how grandchildren give meaning to urban experiences lived in their grandparents' home. Through verbal reports, drawings, photographs and cartographic representations, children show us that the relationships between geographic and emotional proximity are quite complex and that their grandparents' home is an important area of socialization, which is shaped by personal and virtual interactions between these two generations.

Childhood; City; Grandparents; Grandchildren; Urban Experiences