Play as an Urban Method: Childhood, Participation and Public Space in A Vila do Mañá
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22409/arte.lugar.cidade.v3i2.72439Keywords:
play, child and youth participation, public space, urban pedagogy, artistic practicesAbstract
This article examines play as a method of urban inquiry and an artistic-pedagogical practice capable of expanding the participation of children and adolescents in reading and transforming public space. The research adopts a qualitative approach grounded in practice-based inquiry and a comparative study of three experiences developed by A Vila do Mañá in Coia (Vigo), Arzúa, and Silleda, Galicia. Workshops, walks, mappings, performative actions, and temporary artistic interventions are examined through five dimensions: perception, exploration, appropriation, memory, and care. The findings show that play produces situated knowledge, makes the urban imaginaries of children and adolescents visible, and turns body, image, and word into means of public intervention. The article concludes that play can operate as an artistic and urban methodology for promoting more inclusive and democratic common spaces open to intergenerational participation.
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