Children's neighbourhoods, social centres to ‘terra incognita’

Abstract

Neighbourhoods are changing as people lead more spatially dispersed lives diminishing their local social connections. This paper explores the way children interact with their neighbourhoods to see whether they are still socially connected to their neighbourhoods or leading more spatially dispersed social lives. It reports findings from a study of 92 children aged 9–11 in Dunedin, New Zealand. The study found that while many children did have minimal social contact with their neighbourhood, other children retained strong social connections. Key factors determining children's levels of social connectivity include attendance at the local school, levels of independence, neighbourhood urban form, road density and locally accessible classmates.

Keywords:

• children
• neighbourhoods
• social cohesion
• social capital
• New Zealand

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the University of Otago which provided the grant funding for this project. Members of the research team, Dr Eva Vass, Jan Jopson, Em Oysten and Steven Impey and to the children and teachers from the six schools and to Dr Sarah Turner and Dr Anita Gibbs for their comments on the drafts of this paper. My thanks also to the University of Queensland School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management who provided the Planning Fellowship that allowed me time to write this paper.

Notes

Woonerf is a concept that originated in the Netherlands and promotes shared street space in residential areas to be used for socialising and children's play. There are usually no boundaries such as kerbs or footpaths to delineate boundaries between people and vehicle space.

The assessment of children's drawn maps has been discussed in a paper elsewhere and is not discussed as part of this paper.

The data discussed in this paper was data derived from children in the 2008 part of the study as only these children completed the air photo exercise. If the children from 2006 are included the total number of children is 163. In 2006 children were asked about people they knew and did give a very clear impression of their neighbourhood connections. The interview data collected from both 2006 and 2008 children is remarkably consistent and does give the findings stronger resonance than if data had only been collected from the 92 children in 2008. However, to ensure comparability only the 2008 findings are presented in the following tables and graphs as only these children completed the air photo exercise.

School zones do not make a difference where a school is under subscribed and it is in the interest of the school to make up numbers by taking in children from out of the catchment. Most schools in Dunedin are able to take children from out of the catchment as they are not full.