Sociotopkartering med barn : Hur det offentliga rummet kan planeras med barn

Children have long been one of the biggest user-groups of public space. Children’s experiences of public space have not been fully explored by the planning practice. Children’s viewpoint regarding the city have often been overlooked by the adult world, since children are often seen as lacking rational thought and dependent on parents. A relatively new planning method for public open space, called Sociotop Mapping has long been used in the city of Stockholm. The Sociotop Mapping have been an effective way of implementing people’s experiences into the process of planning. The aim of this study was to explore children’s experiences of Public Space by using the Sociotop Method, as developed in Stockholm. The Sociotop Mapping gives actual meaning to human experiences of the city by describing its public space with qualitative values. This study was performed with a qualitative method consisting of two parts. The first part gathered data on public space with placeinventories in the district of Ålidhem in Umeå. The second part of the study derived the experiences of children with in-depth focus group discussions with 14 children living in Umeå. The study concluded that children often find enjoyment in public space, but sometimes might the public space be in crisis, since it cannot handle people that are strangers to one another