Exploring insideness in urban children's sense of place

This study, informed by phenomenology and ethnography, explores urban children's relationship with their urban environment: In what ways do urban children exhibit insideness in their sense of place? This study proposes insideness as a conceptual construct to understand urban children's sense of place in its ecological and dynamic nature. Employing qualitative research methods, the study explores place stories of urban children who live in low-income, immigrant neighborhoods in New York City. The study finds that as children cultivate their sense of place, they construct insideness in their sense of place including 1) environmental understanding (i.e., contextualized, comprehensive, and critical understanding of a place), 2) environmental competence (i.e., knowing how to navigate and engage in a place), and 3) diverse, strong affective relationships with a place. Using insideness as a conceptual tool, this study discusses children's emplaced understanding and active and dialogical positionality in the development of their sense of place. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.