Pandemic play spaces: interim innovations, creative placemaking and lasting change for children in cities

2025/06/09 by Michael Martin · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Educational Environments and Student Outcomes #Children's Rights and Participation #Child Therapy and Development

paper · doi:10.1080/13574809.2025.2505019

Abstract

Internationally, multiple cities introduced temporary solutions to provide safe opportunities for children to play during the COVID-19 crisis. This article unpacks the politics encountered by place-based actors involved in the creative reuse of urban spaces for children during the pandemic in four cities internationally. Focusing on the longer-term influence of interim solutions for urban play, findings demonstrate temporary play projects afford children to be involved in placemaking in novel and inventive ways bolstering their right to the city. However, they also show projects for urban play were vulnerable to protest and dislocation as crisis conditions abated, impacting children’s spatial justice.

Citations

• To Play or Not to Play: Mapping Unequal Provision of Children’s Playgrounds
• Regaining public space for children: the context and mechanisms of a play street intervention in central Paris

Discussions

• New research on #Play & #ChildrensRightToTheCity published in #JournalofUrbanDesign Exploring four international cases of #creativeplacemaking for #children / #play in Australia EU and UK It uncover [bsky, 9 points, 1 comments]

Related

• The place where we live: Children, families, play, neighbourhoods and spaces of care during and after the pandemic
• From segregation to inclusion: children’s engagement in urban public spaces
• Playing the public realm: children’s lived experiences of a neighbourhood play network in a high-density urban community
• The impact of high-density urban environments on children’s play, a systematic review of current insights
• Playing outdoors in Dutch cities: how children perceive and value the public space as a place to play