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MP0006

Outdoor Environments for Children and Youth

The course is about outdoor environments for children and youth and the different strategies used to investigate their relationship with place and developing its benefits. The knowledge can be used to improve planning, design and management for and with children to make outdoor settings adventurous, safe and health-promoting. The first section of the course elaborates on the role of outdoor environments for children’s social life with benefits for their play, learning, and development. The second section of the course deals with planning, design and management of both formal and informal outdoor spaces in cities, neighbourhoods and the natural surroundings. The third section deals with planning practices related to children and youth as part of social and physical planning at national and international level. Special attention is paid to the role of natural environment and its variation related to season, geographic location and the role of specific elements, as edible plants, animals and water.


The course comprises lectures, literature seminars, study visits, project work, exercises and a written exam. Besides a project work, a written exam and examined assignments the course requires the student to carry out assignments and exercises during study visits and seminars.


The course combines mandatory Campus meetings with tasks carried out independently.


Information from the course leader

The role of outdoor environments in children and youth's everyday lives is the focus of this course. The course introduces perspectives, concepts and methods applied in the interdisciplinary study of children and youth's interactions in and with outdoor spaces. You will learn about strategies to investigate their relationship with place and scrutinize how they use different outdoor environments to meet their needs. This is knowledge that can be used to improve the quality of outdoor settings to benefit their play, learning, social life and well-being. We will also investigate how we can meet their needs in practice (planning, design and management) and the role of children and youth's participation in this process. In focus for assignments are the particular qualities children and youth seek in outdoor spaces, the testing of methods to study children's and youth's use of outdoor spaces, and a closer look at a specific problem children/youth face where you live with regards their use of and access to outdoor enviroments.

The course starts in autumn 2022 and is offered online via digital resources (Zoom and Canvas). Note that most of the online lessons will be compulsory. In addition to the online sessions there can be occasions offered to meet up on campus as well as a study visit during the first module.

Module dates (start 2022)

7 sept - 9 sept
26 okt - 28 okt
23 nov - 25 nov
11 jan - 12 jan

Course evaluation

The course evaluation is now closed

MP0006-10015 - Course evaluation report

Once the evaluation is closed, the course coordinator and student representative have 1 month to draft their comments. The comments will be published in the evaluation report.

Additional course evaluations for MP0006

Academic year 2023/2024

Outdoor Environments for Children and Youth (MP0006-10218)

2023-08-28 - 2024-01-14

Academic year 2021/2022

Outdoor Environments for Children and Youth (MP0006-10292)

2021-08-30 - 2022-01-16

Syllabus and other information

Litterature list

Below you will find the literature for each module (I-III) that is mandatory reading. The literature will be discussed in groups during mandatory self-organised literature seminars (see separate instructions on Canvas). All of the texts below should be accessible using SLU’s VPN service: Access to databases and e-journals requires VPN | Studentwebben (slu.se).

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you are having difficulty accessing any of the texts.

Module I: the child/adolescent (7th-9th September, 2022)

Badland, H., Kearns, R., Carroll, P., Oliver, M., Mavoa, S., Donovan, P., ... & Witten, K. (2016). Development of a systems model to visualise the complexity of children's independent mobility. Children's Geographies, 14(1), 91-100.

Chawla, L. (2015). Benefits of nature contact for children. Journal of planning literature, 30(4), 433-452

Jarvis, I., Sbihi, H., Davis, Z., Brauer, M., Czekajlo, A., Davies, H.W., Gergel, S.E., Guhn, M., Jerrett, M., Koehoorn, M. and Nesbitt, L., 2022. The influence of early-life residential exposure to different vegetation types and paved surfaces on early childhood development: A population-based birth cohort study. Environment International, 163, p.107196.

Loebach, J., & Gilliland, J. (2016). Neighbourhood play on the endangered list: examining patterns in children's local activity and mobility using GPS monitoring and qualitative GIS. Children's geographies, 14(5), 573-589.

Wales, M., Mårtensson, F., Hoff, E., and Jansson, M. (2022). Elevating the Role of the Outdoor Environment for Adolescent Wellbeing in Everyday Life. Frontiers in Psychology 13. Doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.774592.

Wells, N. M., Jimenez, F. E., & Mårtensson, F. (2016). Children and nature. Citizen Science. Public Participation in Environmental Research, 201-213.

Module II: the microsystem (26th-28th October, 2022)

Aminpour, F., Bishop, K. and Corkery, L., 2020. The hidden value of in-between spaces for children’s self directed play within outdoor school environments. Landscape and urban planning, 194, p.103683.

Bishop, K. & Corkery, L. (2017). Designing Cities with Children and Young People. Beyond Playgrounds and Skate Parks, Routledge London and New York (Chapter 11). AVAILABLE AS E-BOOK ON CANVAS UNDER COURSE BOOKS.

Jansson, M., Herbert, E., Zalar, A., & Johansson, M. (2022). Child-Friendly Environments—What, How and by Whom?. Sustainability, 14(8), 4852.

Johansson, M., Mårtensson, F., Jansson, M., & Sternudd, C. (2020). Urban space for children on the move. In *Transport and Children's Wellbeing *(pp. 217-235). Elsevier.

Snow, D., Bundy, A., Tranter, P., Wyver, S., Naughton, G., Ragen, J., & Engelen, L. (2019). Girls’ perspectives on the ideal school playground experience: An exploratory study of four Australian primary schools. Children's geographies, 17(2), 148-161.

Wales, M., Mårtensson, F., & Jansson, M. (2021). ‘You can be outside a lot': independent mobility and agency among children in a suburban community in Sweden. Children's Geographies, 19(2), 184-196.

Module III: the macrosystem (23rd-25th November, 2022)

Bishop, K. & Corkery, L. (2017). Designing Cities with Children and Young People. Beyond Playgrounds and Skate Parks, Routledge London and New York (Chapter 3 and 5). AVAILABLE AS E-BOOK ON CANVAS UNDER COURSE BOOKS.

Cele, S., & van Der Burgt, D. (2015). Participation, consultation, confusion: professionals' understandings of children's participation in physical planning. Children's Geographies, 13(1), 14-29.

Derr, V., Chawla, L., & Mintzer, M. (2018). Placemaking with children and youth: Participatory practices for planning sustainable communities. New Village Press (Chapter 1). AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD ON CANVAS UNDER COURSE BOOKS.

Jansson, M., & Lerstrup, I. (2020). Children's perspectives on green space management in Sweden and Denmark. In Place, Pedagogy and Play. Taylor & Francis.

Woolley, H. (2013). Now being social: The barrier of designing outdoor play spaces for disabled children. Children & Society, 27(6), 448-458.

Course facts

The course is offered as an independent course: Yes The course is offered as a programme course: Outdoor Environments for Health and Well-being - Master's Programme Tuition fee: Tuition fee only for non-EU/EEA/Switzerland citizens: 27500 SEK Cycle: Master’s level (A1N)
Subject: Environmental Psychology Landscape Architecture
Course code: MP0006 Application code: SLU-10015 Location: Location independent Distance course: Yes Language: English Responsible department: Department of People and Society Pace: 50%