A spatial perspective on childhood: Children's geography, child's agency and trends in social sciences

The article presents a review of international research in the field of children's geography, a research direction situated at the junction of geography and social studies of childhood. It reviews three stages of the development of children's geography, identifies important events, research centres and researchers (1970s, 1990s and 2000s). The review of key works is focused on the objectives of each stage. In the 1970s, the child is discovered in developmental psychology and environmental psychology; in the 1990s, children's geography is established as a subdiscipline; in the 2000s, children's geography undergoes further institutionalisation, and new directions of interdisciplinary research develop. The review is built upon the publications of the Children's Geographies journal from the period between 2016 and 2020 (a total of 33 issues) and 38 articles selected from the Web of Science database by means of a search query by the key phrase "children AND geography". The study concludes by identifying the following analytical categories: different types of childhood spaces (virtual and real, basic and intermediate) and their technical and emotional characteristics; child's agency and its relationship to children's rights, socialisation and participatory research methods. The article outlines the main research trends in overcoming interdisciplinary boundaries and expanding the subject field of children's geography. The conclusion emphasises the complexity and multidimensionality of the interaction of children and spaces, the influence on spatial relations and spatial behaviour of accompanying factors: family, individual characteristics of the child, infrastructure and sociocultural characteristics of the place of residence. The modern children's geography develops in two directions: "in breadth", i.e. in the direction of interdisciplinarity and intercontinentalism, and "in depth", or in the direction of children's everyday life, the daily experience of interaction between children and spaces. The main challenges children's geography faces are related to the appeal to "absent" (invisible) children and young people; studies of differences and social and cultural relationships between this socio-demographic community and the adult world; and studies of everyday spatiality, emotions and affects of children.