Utomhusmiljöer för barn och ungdom

The role of outdoor environments in children and youth's everyday lives is the focus of this course. The course introduces perspectives, concepts and methods applied in the interdisciplinary study of children and youth's interactions in and with outdoor spaces. You will learn about strategies to investigate their relationship with place and scrutinize how they use different outdoor environments to meet their needs. This is knowledge that can be used to improve the quality of outdoor settings to benefit their play, learning, social life and well-being. We will also investigate how we can meet their needs in practice (planning, design and management) and the role of children and youth's participation in this process. In focus for assignments are the particular qualities children and youth seek in outdoor spaces, the testing of methods to study children's and youth's use of outdoor spaces, and a closer look at a specific problem children/youth face where you live with regards their use of and access to outdoor environments.