Çocukların kentteki yer duygusuna ilişkin bir araştırma: Ankara örneği

The rapid urbanization process causes spatial and social segregation in many cities of the world in the last decades. The contemporary city does not provide inclusive urban environments to children; they are increasingly exluded from public open spaces. Spatially and mentally segregated urban environments neither provide learning opportunities nor help improve the social abilities of children. The sense of place is a dynamic and complicated phenomenon that changes over time. The area that children feel to belong expands over time with discovering a broader range in the environment since their early ages. First, they explore their home and then the immediate vicinity and neighborhood. However, children's access to public spaces, to their peers, to playgrounds/parks, and green spaces are limited due to concerns for safety. In this thesis it is argued that disconnection from open urban public spaces may affect children's sense of place. Based on studies of humanenvironment relations, the present research focuses on the children's sense of place and participation in the outdoor places at the neighborhood scale in Ankara, through a survey conducted with children of ages 9-11 and their parents. Keywords: Children, Sense of Place, Children's Space Perception, Neighborhood.