ABSTRACT
Early pilot studies relied on the use of semistructured interviews, organized around themes categorized into three areas of interest: physical objects and features, human experience and place making. These were conducted as part of a number of school grounds improvement projects, and refined in a public consultation planning project about the place perception of the inhabitants of a village in North Yorkshire, UK. This provided an opportunity to develop themes relevant to a wider neighbourhood context. In this pilot, the children were initially engaged in a game to find their home on a base plan of their neighbourhood and then mark it with a model house; this was partly an attempt to put them at their ease. This technique helped to give the subsequent interview a sense of orientation focused on a known and familiar place. This was developed for the first phase of the doctoral research by extending the game so that, in addition to identifying their home, children also marked their school and indicated their typical mode of transport between the two places, and whether they were alone or with others, for example. This extension to the original pilot was made to recognize the likelihood that social issues as well as method of travel might play a significant part in the children’s perceptions of place. The interviews for this first phase were conducted on a one-to-one basis in the company or proximity of a known adult.
