ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a concise review of scholarly attempts to understand the conditions and experiences of children in urban environments. The focus is on research undertaken by Western scholars that links the urban environment with the health, independence and well-being of children. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first reviews research undertaken prior to 1970. During this period scholarly research was primarily discipline-focused and it concentrated on the physical and mental health of children, and children’s stepwise development and interaction with their surrounding environment. The second part of the chapter covers the 1970-90 period, which was distinguished by a concern with the complex themes of independence and children’s comprehension and the response of their environment. Studies with attentiveness to such phenomenological themes were common in the 1970s. Since then the relationship between urban environments and children’s health outcomes, as well as the complexity of the dynamic influence of social, cultural and economic factors on children’s development, has become an increasing focus of scholarly attention. A key theme to emerge during these two decades was a shift towards more inter-and multidisciplinary research. The third and final part of the chapter focuses on the body of research that has dominated the field since the early 1990s – the relationship between obesity, physical activity and urban environments.
