The University of Northampton’s Institute of Health and Wellbeing are holding a conference The Great Outdoors? Children, Young People and Families in Natural and Rural Spaces, on 9th-10th September 2015 at Sunley Conference Centre.

The conference marks 15 years since the publication of Matthews et al.’s (2000) ‘Growing up in the countryside: children and the rural idyll’. This anniversary represents a timely moment for reflection on the state of research into children, young people and families in, and in relation to, ‘rural’ and ‘natural’ spaces.

Papers are invited, which focus on children, young people and families, in relation to the following topics. 

• Managing natural and/or rural environments for children, young people and families;
• Play and learning in natural and/oroutdoor spaces;
• Rural change and livelihoods in the Global South;
• Health and wellbeing in natural and/or outdoor spaces;
• Friendships, relationships and belonging in rural and/or natural environments;
• Innovative concepts and research methods for exploring rural and/or natural spaces;
• Community social norms and surveillance in rural and/or natural areas;
• Participation, activism and citizenship in natural and/or outdoor spaces;
• Concepts of rural idyll, nature deficit disorder and the great outdoors;
• Changing contexts of policy and service provision for rural spaces;
• Rural mobilities, economies and housing

A draft programme for the conference can be found here, along with details of how to register.