GeoDiskurse in cooperation with: Transient Spaces Lecture Series. Lecture is on 13th June 2024,10:15 until 11:45 at Hörsaal 5, University of Innsbruck. Title: Urban public spaces as catalysts for empowerment and social inclusion. By Hooshmand Alizadeh.

Little Eyes, Big Cities: Young Children Reimagine Urban Environments

As more children grow up in cities, designing urban environments that meet their needs has become increasingly crucial. However, young children’s experiences and visions for liveable, resilient, and inclusive cities are often overlooked in urban planning. This paper presents a participatory research project with 76 children (aged 3–4 years) from Dunedin and Wellington, New Zealand. Through a tile-based mapping exercise and a photo-elicitation activity, children shared how they experience and envision their cities—ranging from imaginative constructions to realistic urban representations. The photographs they took offer a unique lens through which we can view their urban environments, providing rich insights into their everyday experiences, spatial interactions, and the ways in which social and built environments shape their lives. By centering children’s perspectives, this research highlights the importance of inclusive urban design that fosters well-being, play, and connection. It calls for cities that support the flourishing and resilience of both human communities and the more-than-human world, paving the way for more just, equitable, and child-friendly urban futures.

Im Neuenheimer Feld 306 (Theoretikum), Raum SR 14 (Erdgeschoss)

24th June 2025, 17:00 – 19:00

Poster of Christina’s lecture:

Poster of all lectures summer term 2025:

Speaker

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Christina R. Ergler

The University of Otago, New Zealand

Christina is a geographer driven by a passion for creating just, sustainable and inclusive environments that enhance the quality of life of humans and non-humans. She traces and endeavors to disrupt social, health, and environmental injustices as they relate to people’s well-being and well-becoming in the minority and majority worlds. She privileges the voices of marginalized groups to address the systemic structural inequities and broader social and environmental determinants of health/wellbeing/wellbecoming found in the everyday conditions and (on and offline) spaces in which people live, move, work, learn and play.
Her research platform, which is enriched through international, cross/multi/inter-disciplinary collaborations in education, psychology, planning and health sciences, can be broadly divided into four main areas:
1. Wellbeing, Rights and Liveability
2. Wellbecoming and Care
3. Wellbeing and mobilities
4. Wellbeing and research practices: researching meaningful collborations

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