What?

The Our Parks Project is a platform for communicating children’s stories, thoughts, feelings and photographs from the urban green spaces they visit. . The project aims to highlight the value of urban green spaces for children and showcase their ability to benefit children’s wellbeing. The project employs photovoice, a form of participatory research, to collect stories and photographs from children.

Why

It is widely agreed that we have entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, whereby human responsibility for the darkening fate of the planet is being recognised. To be a child in the Anthropocene is to be deeply entangled with the rest of society, more-than-human others and the environmental challenges the planet faces. The Our Parks Project came about in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic has had a profound impact on childhood, emphasising how deeply children are entangled within the wider world. The relaxing of regulations saw a rise in use of urban green space, providing a place for children to play, to socialise and to learn.

The Our Parks Project aims to illuminate urban parks as a sites of playful entanglements of children, society and more-than-human life. It attempts to showcase the power of urban green space for benefiting wellbeing and so putting pressure on the importance for all children to have access to safe green spaces.

Who

The Our Parks Project was the creation of Georgia Corum for the purpose of her MA Environmental Humanities at Bath Spa University. Georgia completed an undergraduate degree in Marine and Natural History Photography. Georgia has a number of years experience working as a Playworker and Forest School practitioner. During her recent years working with children and her postgraduate study Georgia has developed an interest in the relationship between childhood, outdoor play and environmentalism.