A network for researching children and young people
Professor Peter Kraftl and Andrea Davis of The University of Birmingham discuss their Children and Childhood Network, proud partners and hosts for this week’s Play 2021 conference.
A key part of the research programme at the University of Birmingham relates to how we can include diverse children’s experiences and voices in planning the towns and cities where we live. This is why one of us, Peter, has been pleased to be involved in previous Playful Planet events, where this has been such a key theme. The last of these was the excellent child-friendly cities conference in Bristol in 2019 – which now, of course, seems a lifetime away.
Our shared interest in children’s agency and children’s spaces is also why the Children and Childhood Network is now proud and delighted to be co-hosting Play 2021, the fantastic new Playful Planet conference on childhood, play and space. Although we are naturally disappointed not to be welcoming delegates in person to our beautiful campus (and to have seemingly missed the opportunity for this by less than two weeks!) we are nevertheless excited about what we believe is a great programme with a wonderful range of speakers.
The Children and Childhood Network (CCN) was founded here at the University of Birmingham in 2017 to support a community of researchers and professionals dedicated to working with and on behalf of children. The network now has more than 170 members, including PhD students, academic staff at all career stages, practitioners and other professionals, from fields as diverse as education, geography, history, law, computing, environmental sciences, applied health, nursing and many more.
With a focus on the University, the aim is to enable this network to find the energetic space to share ideas and discuss our work. We are not funded and do not (yet!) run any courses; rather, we bring people together, support grant applications, and aim to create a space in which childhood research, in particular, can flourish. The University offers an excellent base to do this.
Beyond our ability to support this conference, the network also supports the University’s involvement in the Forum for Global Challenges – an event focused on identifying and developing solutions to key global challenges, including many facing children, which is linked to the Commonwealth Games in May 2022.
We also produce the 2050 Childhoods Seminar Series, which is focused on identifying the kinds of issues that may face children in the future. Seminars have been held on topics as diverse as digital research with children and online gaming. All seminars are on Zoom (and will continue to be). They are free and open to all.
If you are attending Play 2021, we hope you have a great conference, and that next time we might greet you in person.
Peter Kraftl and Andrea Davis
Peter Kraftl is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Birmingham, UK. His research focuses on geographies of children and young people, and geographies of education. He has published eight books and over 50 journal articles, including Children Living in Sustainable Built Environments (Routledge, 2017).
Andrea Davis is a PhD student in Education at the University of Birmingham with a research focus on the views, beliefs and values of sub-Saharan communities around education. She is also a project manager for Dream Networks, a social enterprise dedicated to providing safe playgrounds designed by the children who will then play in the space. Andrea is passionate about the power of play, and finding ways to improve education in the developing world.
Andrea Davis and Professor Kraftl are jointly chairing Play 2021, the new conference on children play and space, hosted online by the University of Birmingham’s Children and Childhood Network on 7th-8th July 2021.
Click on the logo to register for the event.
Registration closes at 12 noon, 6th July.
