Symposium: Walking/Wheeling with Infants and Children

Expressions of interest call...

Event Date: Friday 15th September 2023 Manchester Metropolitan University, Business School, All Saints Campus

During the Covid-19 pandemic, England experienced an ‘active travel renaissance’. Yet three years later, active travel plans have hit a snag with the Government recently announcing major cuts to its active travel budget. In the background, national and local organisations have deployed enormous energy and creativity to lobby for walking and wheeling-friendly streets and paths. Children, they often argue, are the ones who have the most to lose if we abandon active travel. In light of these developments, the aim of this event is to connect interdisciplinary academic research examining walking with children with policy, activism and practice. 

Walking/wheeling with children (including non-mobile infants) is an experience that many see as mundane or taken for granted. It may be a journey to help ease a baby off to sleep in their pram or a sling; it might be the nursery/school run; it might be a family leisure activity out in the countryside. Yet many parents and carers would agree that the first outing with a child, whatever their age, changes your perspective of space and the environment. It alerts you to potential dangers, but also to opportunities for wonder, education and play. Young children’s alertness can transform our sensory experiences of our immediate surroundings, from the concerning smell of car exhaust right after drop-off to the enchanting sounds of dry leaves crunching underneath small feet. 

“This difference between not noticing the sidewalk, but the grass growing in between the cracks of the sidewalk—it seems to me that children might be the best observers of this.” (Tsing)

After a few months or years of walking/wheeling with children, many parents have a new understanding of their and others’ mobility, from the importance of seemingly unremarkable pieces of street infrastructure such as dropped kerbs to the unsung charms of a well-kept path. Their views are well worth listening and attending to if the UK government is to reach its goal of “50% of all journeys in English towns and cities [being] walked or cycled by 2030”.

The walking/wheeling examined at this event is broadly defined but the aim is to explore the pleasures and pains that having an infant companion affords and seek solutions to how walking and wheeling could be better facilitated. The event will give exposure to recent academic research on parents and carers’ experience of walking/wheeling with children while fostering discussions and collaborations with policy-makers and activists.  

This event will examine walking with infants and children in terms of key policy arenas such as:

-Climate crisis and local environments

-Physical and mental health

-Community (dis)connectedness

-Urban design and accessibility

-Addressing inequalities

-Histories and futures of mobility

We invite contributions for short academic papers bearing in mind that spaces are limited for this particular event. We are particularly interested in perspectives exploring the experiences of members of the global majority and Disabled people.

We would also welcome people to just come along and attend/engage with a view to be involved in future events/bidding activity.

If interested in presenting your research at the event, please send a 300-word abstract and one-page CV to Dr Louise Platt (L.Platt@mmu.ac.uk) and Dr Elsa Devienne (elsa.devienne@northumbria.ac.uk) before 15 June 2023.

To register your interest in attending or hearing more about the event, do drop us a line.