The global as a field: children's rights advocacy as a transnational practice

Research on transnationalism has called into question the much criticized but persistent dichotomy between the nation-state space as an ‘inside’, and the global realm as its constitutive ‘outside’. This paper contributes to the emerging scholarship on transnational elites working at the intersection of the national and the global by assessing practices related to children's rights advocacy. Particular attention is paid to the drafting and the enforcement of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child since the 1980s. Based on Bourdieuan theorization of social fields the paper argues that some aspects in the children's rights advocacy can only be understood as reflecting the dynamism of the transnational field of children's rights. In somewhat broader terms the paper proposes that the formative logic of elite-driven globalization is a social and political dynamism related to the rules of competition and collaboration that structure inclusions, exclusions and awards in transnational fields

Children’s political geographies

This chapter introduces children’s political geographies from three perspectives. The first section discusses children’s place and role in political geographical research in general, providing a brief overview of the development that led to the problematization of children’s absence as participants from political geographical events, dynamics and power relations. The second section looks into the subfields of children’s and young people’s geographies and the role of politics in these relatively new research areas, in connection with the interdisciplinary field of childhood studies that provides them a broader social scientific context. The third section considers the geographies of children’s politics, portraying major themes that scholars have thus far engaged with in their attempts to make better sense of the political worlds where children’s everyday lives are embedded, and where they practice their agencies by mundane and more formal means

Seudullista kansalaisosallistumista jäljittämässä tiedon yhteistuottamisen keinoin

This article analyses an ongoing process of knowledge co-production concerning the role of citizens and participation in strategic city-regional planning, and discusses the theoretical and practical knowledge that results from the process. In knowledge co-production involving urban planning experts and researchers, three things stand out as key to successful outcomes: an ongoing dialogue between scientific and practical understanding, knowledge production as an accumulative process, and constructive criticism as a dynamism that pushes the frontiers of practical understanding. Based on our initial empirical findings about citizenship and participation on the city-regional level, we suggest that the role of broad value- and issue-based deliberation concerning the long-term aims of urban environment could be a fruitful starting point for discussions between citizens, experts and politicians within emerging city-regions.Peer reviewe

Mobiilisovelluksen opetuskäytön yhteys kahdeksasluokkalaisten fyysiseen aktiivisuuteen koulupäivän aikana

Vain pieni osa maamme kahdeksasluokkalaisista saavuttaa tunnin päivittäisen liikuntasuosituksen. Arkipäivinä suurin osa paikallaanolosta kertyy koulussa vietettynä aikana. Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin ActionTrack mobiilisovelluksella ulkona annetun opetuksen yhteydet oppilaiden fyysiseen aktiivisuuteen koulupäivän aikana. Tutkimukseen osallistui kaksi kahdeksatta luokkaa, jotka käyttivät mobiilisovellusta ulkona seitsemän kuukauden ajan kahdesta kolmeen kertaan viikossa teoreettisten oppiaineiden tunnilla. Fyysinen aktiivisuus mitattiin ActiGraph kiihtyvyysmittarein. Liikemittauksiin osallistui 28 oppilasta ja heidän koulupäivän aikaista fyysistä aktiivisuutta kuvattiin paikallaanolon, vähintään reippaan liikunnan ja askelten määrinä. Koulupäivien fyysistä aktiivisuutta verrattiin mobiilisovelluksella opetusta sisältäneinä koulupäivinä (mobiilituntipäivä) ja muina koulupäivinä. Muut koulupäivät luokiteltiin 1) tavanomaiseksi päiväksi, jolloin ei ollut mobiili- eikä liikuntatuntia, 2) liikuntatuntipäiväksi, jolloin ei ollut mobiilituntia, mutta oli liikuntatunti ja 3) mobiili- & liikuntatuntipäiväksi, jolloin oli mobiili- ja liikuntatunti. Fyysisen aktiivisuuden erot mobiilituntipäivien ja muiden koulupäivien välillä analysoitiin toistettujen mittausten t-testillä. Mobiilitunnin sisältäneiden koulupäivien aikana oppilaat liikkuivat enemmän ja olivat vähemmän paikallaan kuin tavanomaisina päivinä. Reipasta liikuntaa oli keskimäärin noin yhdeksän minuuttia enemmän ja paikallaan oltiin keskimäärin noin 22 minuuttia vähemmän seitsemän tunnin koulupäivän aikana. Lisääntynyt koulupäivän aikainen reippaan liikunnan määrä vastasi noin 20 prosenttia oppilaiden koko päivän aikaisesta reippaan liikunnan määrästä ennen mobiilisovelluksen käyttöä. Mobiili- & liikuntatuntipäivinä oppilaat liikkuivat enemmän kuin mobiilituntipäivinä. Johtopäätös on, että ulkona ActionTrackin kaltaisilla mobiilisovelluksilla opettaen voidaan lisätä oppilaiden liikuntaa tavanomaisiin koulupäiviin. Only a fraction of Finnish adolescents fulfill one-hour daily recommendations  for physical activity (PA). On weekdays, most  of the sedentary time accumulates during school-hours. In this  study, we investigated how the use of ActionTrack mobile application  for outdoor teaching is associated with the school day PA  in eighth grade pupils. The intervention participants were pupils off two 8th grade  classes. They used a mobile application in academic classes two  to three times a week for seven months. The pupils’ PA was  measured with ActiGraph accelerometers. In total, 28 students  participated in the accelerometer measurements. Their school  day PA was expressed as sedentary-time (ST), moderate-tovigorous  PA (MVPA) and steps. The PA of school days including  a mobile application class was compared with other school  days. Other school days were classified as 1) regular days, without  a mobile application class or a physical education (PE) class,  2) PE -day, that included PE, without a mobile application class,  and 3) mobile & PE -day, including both a mobile application  class and a PE class. The differences in PA between days including  a mobile application class and other days were analysed with  repeated measures t-test. Compared with regular days, the pupils had more PA and less  ST on days that included a mobile application class. During a  seven hours school day there was an average nine minutes increase  in MVPA and an average 22 minutes decrease in ST. The  increase in MVPA during a school day was comparable to around  20 percent of the pupils’ total daily amount of MVPA before the  use of the mobile application. During mobile & PE -days the  students had more PA than during days including a mobile application  class. In conclusion, the use of the ActionTrack application and similar applications in outdoor teaching can increase the pupils PA compared with regular school days.</p