ABSTRACT
Children in the three neighbourhoods notting dale; bedwell and mill hill were asked to make a map or drawing of all their favourite places—where they went after school or on weekends, including the summer—around their homes and neighbourhoods. In order to reflect a local-global/individual-and-society research perspective, a 'wedge' approach was used so that both the breadth and depth of children's relationships with their surroundings could be taken into account. In the middle area, wedges overlap, more or less, depending on the density of relations between children and their degree of shared territory. The attractiveness of the school was perhaps a genuine reflection of a sense of belonging on the part of children, attributable to the educational programme and/or the special qualities of the physical setting. The low incidence of 'child-made places'—forts, clubhouses, secret places, hiding places and tree houses—was most surprising, since such places are often portrayed by adults as ideal childhood environments.
