Knowing the Journey to School: Mapping the dangers and violences for children.

Keywords: experiential knowledge, critical cartography, PGIS, schoolchildren, risks, safety, traffic
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Mapping “Journey to School” implies mapping children’s experiences and fears of dangers in their second-most significant territory. Traffic accidents are most extreme; children also face: drug dealers, violent dogs, aggressive police and public transport, bullying from 'other' children, sexual harassment, weather, dust, traffic pollution, arduous walking. These realities are another virulent face of engrained social-economic spatial injustice. ‘.. links between child poverty and road traffic injuries; 60% of children in Mexico City walk to school, mostly from low-income families’ (UNICEF).

Who knows better than children themselves what they face on a daily basis? But it isn’t easy for children to inform urban (planning) authorities who hold this low on their ‘accessibility’ priorities. How then to work directly with children, (teachers, families), to understand and validate what they experience? Current methodology utilizes participatory mapping of especial danger zones on paper, geobrowsers, & geodatabases (GoogleEarth, OSM); children’s own photos and videos; dedicated platforms, social media, and phone apps; sensitised workshops; socialization to schools, communities, authorities (Hasanzadeh 2021; Preto et al. 2016; Walker et al. 2009; Wilson et al. 2019).
Beyond mapping and validation is another social goal towards risk reduction - examining factors framing children's risk behavior (Defoe et al. 2019).
This isn’t at all new (Bunge1969; Osborne 2005; Active Living) but still, relative to growing research into mapping of children’s territorialisation, approaches to participatory understanding / mapping of these journeys are underdeveloped. The intention here is to critically review and search alternative approaches and reliable methods.