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.

This article focuses on how the visceral, sensual and the imagined shape children's everyday mobility experiences and their meaning making around their everyday mobility, thus contributing to the growing field of study on children's emotional geographies and to the field of visceral geographies. By introducing the concept of visceral imaginaries, the role of the imagined in children's spatial and mobile experiences is highlighted and developed. The children further emerge as aged bodies in these visceral processes, as the affective practices and visceral imaginaries position children as aged subjects. The findings are based on a qualitative research project on children's practices and experiences of their everyday mobilities, in which 59 children (7–13 years old) participated, predominantly from white urban middle-class families in a mid-sized municipality in Sweden.

In this text, we will discuss this current urban matter of the publicness of public transport as a question of spatial justice, through the perspective of young people in so-called disadvantaged neighbourhoods. We argue that public mobilities such as the bus, are essential for young people’s everyday lives, yet seldom highlighted in discussions of, for example, child-friendly cities. Bus mobilities can be understood as a vital part of citizenship, as the bus allows young people to explore dispersed localities, to take up and inhabit public space, with opportunities that go beyond mere transport. In this sense, be(com)ing a bus rider is about be(com)ing a citizen, but the citizenship skills cultivated through everyday bus use are seldom recognized as such. The young people can be seen as less-than-citizens, as their perspectives and bodies are not recognized as both citizenship and urban mobilities seem to be permeated by an adult norm.  

This article focuses on the everyday mobilities of families living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Sweden. Through the use of interview material from two ongoing qualitative research projects on families’ apartment living, and on everyday mobility in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, we analyse how families account for the organization of collective family mobilities in order to enable and support children’s play and movement. Departing from a relational understanding of mobility, the article contributes to research on children’s everyday mobilities by focusing on how these are enmeshed with collective family mobilities as well as entangled with the neighbourhood context. The findings show how family play outings to parks, playgrounds and commercial play centres are a way for families to handle risk as well as to do and display ‘togetherness’, through the creation of ‘safe family spaces’ on the move for children’s play and movement. 

Dieser Artikel befasst sich mit der Alltagsmobilität von Familien, die in einem benachteiligten Viertel in Schweden leben. Anhand von Interviewmaterial aus zwei laufenden qualitativen Forschungsprojekten zum Wohnen von Familien und zur alltäglichen Mobilität in benachteiligten Stadtvierteln wird analysiert, wie Familien kollektive Familienmobilität gestalten, um Spiel und Bewegung der Kinder zu ermöglichen und zu unterstützen. Ausgehend von einem relationalen Verständnis von Mobilität trägt der Artikel zur Erforschung der Alltagsmobilität von Kindern und Familien bei, indem herausgearbeitet wird, wie diese miteinander sowie dem sozialräumlichen Kontext des Viertels verwoben sind. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, wie Familienausflüge in Parks, auf Spielplätze und in kommerzielle Spielzentren eine Möglichkeit für Familien darstellen, mit Risiken umzugehen und "Zusammengehörigkeit" zu zeigen, indem sie unterwegs "sichere Familienräume" für das Spiel und die Bewegung der Kinder schaffen.