In the post-pandemic context, some rural schools in Catalonia (Spain) show an increase in pupils, which corresponds to back-to-the-land movements of urban families with school-age children. Families say they are attracted by «the natural environment, the freedom, the possibility to spend more time with the family, the autonomy that children acquire, the mutual help between families and the tranquility», discourses that are in tune with the traditional ‘rural childhood idyll’. In this paper we explore post-covid rural childhoods through children’s relationship with their spaces of reference. Specifically, we want to delve into the emotional geographies of children with the places they use in their daily lives. _x000D_
Using a qualitative methodology with Relief Maps, children between 9 to 12 years old from four rural schools in Catalonia express their emotions in relation to their experiences in these places. By linking the psychological, geographical, and social (gender) dimensions, the children become individually aware of the subjectivities that the movement through different spaces provokes in them. The research highlights the depth of the lived experience, brings out controversial feelings and unique spaces. The voice of the children themselves can be a mirror in which to reflect the discourses of the new residents nowadays._x000D_

Mireia Baylina & Anna Ortiz
Departament de Geografia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

 
ID Abstract: 227