Public transport is seen as a key player in the green transition of the transport sector in the Global North. The bus is primarily associated with positive values, reflecting a lifestyle and choice-centred sustainability discourse. The paper argues that the bus system can be thought of as an affective economy of “goodness” that stands in great contrast with bus-dependent lived experience of bus mobilities, in particular people living in marginalized urban areas. Qualitative interviews with young and adult bus riders living in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods are contrasted with an analysis of regional transport plans to reveal discrepancies between the envisioned ideal future users and the current collective of bus users. The paper outlines how bus-dependent groups negotiate their own everyday bus experiences, and the affective economy of stigma related to their neighbourhoods, with public discourses on bus mobilities as normatively good. The article highlights the need to acknowledge how affect works in relation to public transport and the green transition, and points to the need to critically engage with questions of equality and justice in policy making and planning practices in the context of public transport.

Att skapa täta städer har varit en central strategi för att arbeta med urban hållbarhet, vilket resulterat i att allt fler familjer bor i flerbostadshus. Forskning visar samtidigt på samband mellan täta stadsmiljöer och barns minskade mobilitet och utomhuslek. Rapporten presenterar resultaten från forskningsprojektet Hållbara vertikala barndomar? Familjers lägenhetsboende och barns vardagsmobilitet och lek som har analyserat  familjers vardagsmobilitet och lek i tre olika bostadsområden i Uppsala i Sverige. En central utgångspunkt har varit att utforska urban hållbarhet utifrån ett vardagslivsperspektiv. Det övergripande syftet har varit att undersöka hur familjer med barn upplever boende i flerbostadshus i områden med olika arkitektoniska ideal och struktur, hur de organiserar sin vardag med tanke på barns lek, och hur de rör sig i sin bostad, på bostadsgården och i bostadsområdet. Var och hur leker barnen? Var, hur och med vem rör sig barnen i bostaden eller bostadsområdet? Projektet baseras på kvalitativa metoder och utgår ifrån teorier om urban hållbarhet, mobilitet samt familjers tidsrumsliga organisation.

En central ambition är att visa hur samhällsplanering genomsyras av sociala och kulturella föreställningar om vardagslivet och vilka behov människor har. Vi tar avstamp i att det finns en relation mellan planeringsideologi och hur den materialiseras i den byggda miljön. Vi menar att det finns en tydlig koppling mellan områdenas fysiska struktur och vilka möjligheter och hinder som miljön innebär för familjernas vardagsmoblitet och barnens möjlighet att röra sig och leka i sina bostadsområden. Ett tydligt resultat är att det täta stadsidealet medför betydande inskränkningar för barn när det gäller deras lek, vardagsmobilitet och utevistelser. En tydlig slutsats är också att de långtgående byggprocesser som förtätningen och byggande av nya stadsdelar medför har en tydlig påverkan på både familjers och barns upplevelser av bostadsområdet både ur trivsel- och trygghets- och säkerhetsaspekter. I rapporten lyfter vi fram ett alternativ till förtätning som planeringsideal, nämligen omhändertagande boendemiljöer. Vi menar att idén om omhändertagande boendemiljöer flyttar fokus från den byggda miljön till relationen mellan den byggda miljön och invånarna. Omhändertagande boendemiljöer stöttar invånarnas vardagsliv samtidigt som invånarna har möjlighet att justera, anpassa och omforma den byggda miljön i takt med att vardagslivet förändras.

In current Swedish planning and policy discourse, cycling is seen as an efficient way to commute in urban environments and a key component in advancing more sustainable transport. In Sweden, cycling is more prevalent among the more affluent population, but there is (with some exceptions) little knowledge on cycling in low-income areas. Given that well-developed cycling infrastructure is available and that bicycling is a comparably low-cost transport mode, higher rates of cycling in disadvantaged neighbourhoods could be expected. For policies that increase inclusive cycling to be implemented, there is a need to understand what makes cycling achievable for diverse groups. Based on the everyday cycling experiences of 31 families living in socially disadvantaged and ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in Sweden, this paper provides qualitative accounts of cycling, knowledge that can inform policy. Key concepts from urban sociology are used to analyse a person’s conditions for cycling. Our findings suggest that while cycling could be considered a practical, social, and flexible mode of transport, especially for younger people, only a few adults in our sample cycled. The results reflect an ambivalence toward cycling as part of everyday mobility. Cycling was perceived as something “typically Swedish”, a norm conditioned by age, gender, and body related weights and reliefs and hard to combine with everyday care- and work responsibilities. The gap between preferred and used mode implies an untapped cycling potential, a finding that suggests that pro cycling policies need to pay increased attention to broader social justice perspectives to support cycling (also) in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

The welfare state planning of the Nordic countries can be said to have been carried out as political acts of state care and concern of (some of) their citizens, to tackle poverty and poor housing conditions, and provide more equal living conditions for the whole population. The Million Programme Housing Project (MP) was an ambitious project carried out to combat housing shortage in Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s, which also resulted in traffic separation, car-free courtyards and housing blocks, and recreational green infrastructure. By analysing accounts of walking in 47 interviews around the everyday mobilities of 31 families living in three disadvantaged MP areas in three cities in Sweden, we suggest that the walking practices can be regarded as ‘caringscapes’. The narratives of the participants illuminate how walking is both self-care, other-care, and neighbourhood-care. Taken together, these different facets of ‘caringscapes’ of walking are further discussed in relation to walking as an enacted and practiced infrastructure of care. This conceptual framework of care captures the different experiential facets of walking and highlights the embodied, interdependent, and relational aspects of walking.

Relationality has become central to Childhood Studies and even described as its ontological ground. Feminist theories offer articulate theorizing on relationalities, yet feminist ideas of relationality have not had a significant impact on Childhood Studies. Through focusing on feminist notions of corporeal specificity, sexual-temporal difference and asymmetry, and transcorporeality, this paper argues that feminist theorizations open up a space to engage with childhood and children’s lives as not only relational or entangled, but as inevitably imbricated in relations of power.

Using the case of the mobile preschool we focus on how children's prosthetic citizenship is constructed in relation to notions of mobility and place in the accounts of Swedish mobile preschool professionals. Mobile preschools are preschools in buses that visit different places in and around the city on an everyday basis. Analysis of interviews and workshop discussions with mobile preschool professionals shows how three different conceptualisations of children's 'proper' citizenship operate in parallel in these accounts - children as 'not-yet-citizens', children as 'not-here-citizens' and children as 'here-and-now-citizens'. These different conceptualisations are constructed in relation to the everyday mobility of the mobile preschool and notions of places as more or less beneficial for children's proper future and Swedish citizenship, and reveal how mobility is not only a consequence of citizenship relations but also constitutive of them. This paper contributes to knowledge on how mobility and notions of place constitute ideas on citizenship, and how forms and geographies of mobility produce subjects as more or less citizen.

Utilizando el caso de la preescolar móvil, nos centramos en cómo se construye la ciudadanía protética de los niños en relación con las nociones de movilidad y lugar según los comentarios de los profesionales de la preescolar móvil suecos. Los centros preescolares móviles son centros preescolares en autobuses que visitan diferentes lugares de la ciudad y sus alrededores todos los días. El análisis de entrevistas y discusiones de talleres con profesionales de preescolar móviles muestra cómo tres conceptualizaciones diferentes de la ciudadanía ‘adecuada’ de los niños operan en paralelo en estos relatos: los niños como ‘todavía no ciudadanos’, los niños como ‘ciudadanos que no están aquí’ y los niños como ‘ciudadanos del aquí y ahora’. Estas diferentes conceptualizaciones se construyen en relación con la movilidad cotidiana de la preescolar móvil y las nociones de lugares como más o menos beneficiosos para el futuro adecuado de los niños y la ciudadanía sueca, y revelan cómo la movilidad no es solo una consecuencia de las relaciones ciudadanas, sino también constitutiva de ellas. Este artículo contribuye al conocimiento de cómo la movilidad y las nociones de lugar constituyen ideas sobre ciudadanía, y cómo las formas y geografías de la movilidad producen sujetos como más o menos ciudadanos.

En utilisant l’exemple des haltes-garderies itinérantes, nous nous intéressons à la manière dont la citoyenneté prothétique des enfants est construite par rapport aux notions de mobilité et de lieu dans les récits d’employés de haltes-garderies itinérantes en Suède. Celles-ci sont des centres préscolaires structurés dans des autobus qui visitent tous les jours des lieux divers dans la ville et sa périphérie. Une analyse d’entretiens et de débats d’atelier avec des employés de haltes-garderies montre comment trois conceptualisations de la « vraie » citoyenneté de l’enfant fonctionnent parallèlement à ces récits: l’enfant « pas-encore citoyen », l’enfant « pas-ici citoyen » et l’enfant « ici-maintenant citoyen ». Ces différentes conceptualisations sont construites par rapport à la mobilité quotidienne de la halte-garderie itinérante et à l’idée de lieu comme étant plus ou moins bénéfique à l’avenir des enfants et à leur nationalité suédoise, et révèle la manière dont la mobilité est non seulement une conséquence des rapports de citoyenneté, mais leur est aussi intrinsèque. Cet article contribue aux connaissances concernant la manière dont la mobilité et les notions de lieux constituent des concepts concernant la citoyenneté, et comment les formes et les géographies de la mobilité produisent des individus qui sont plus ou moins citoyens.

Drawing from an ethnographic evaluation of the American violence prevention program Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), the present paper aims to explore 1) The participating girls’ views of classroom culture and sense of safety, and; 2) Strategies for and obstacles to creating a transformative space for conversations about sexualized violence in three schools with young people aged 12–18 in Sweden. The material analysed in this paper consists of transcripts from video observations and field notes from all sessions in three classes and from group and individual interviews with participants. The paper contributes to critical research on violence in a broad sense, including its prevention, and on anti-oppressive education. In conclusion, we stress the importance of competence, commitment and preparing for precarity, when involving young people. Addressing boys and men as allies in violence prevention must be balanced with a critical feminist understanding of the realities of violence, including sensitivity both to the needs of the group and of individual possibly victimized participants.

The aim of this editorial to the Viewpoints Special Issue in Children's Geographies on ‘Children Living in pandemic Times: a geographical, transnational and situated view’ is, on the one hand, to present a transnational general picture of the COVID-19 situation for children. And on the other, to make a call for childhood researchers particularly focused on children's geographies, to collaboratively approach this unprecedented situation. The main aspects of children living in pandemic times as they are identified by the different viewpoints in this special issue are presented, highlighting key commonalities and differences across countries, discussing the aspects that emerge from this phenomenon that seem most relevant for research on children’s geographies in these times. Finally, we refer to some of the studies being conducted in different parts of the world, methodological challenges for children’s geographies research under these circumstances, and emerging research questions.

In this paper, Sweden’s situation in and response to the COVID-19 pandemic is discussed. Through examples of overcrowding and public transport, we argue that the pandemic has revealed, and risks reaffirming, existing aged, gendered, ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities in the housing market, and in relation to mobility and transport. The paper seeks to explore how the large scale and widespread housing segregation in Sweden contributes to the unequal spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, we address how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected and continues to affect the mobility of children, young people and families in unequal transport systems.