流动儿童绘画作品中“家”的想象与实践:批判地理学视角

Imagination and practice of“home”in paintings of migrant children:The perspective of critical geography

“家”是文化地理学的重要研究议题之一,以往研究多从成人的视角出发,儿童与家这一关键地方的关系尚未得到充分关注。以广州市番禺区QX村为研究案例地,通过分析165位流动儿童以“家”为主题的绘画作品,并结合参与式观察、文本分析和照片引谈的混合研究方法,从批判地理学视角讨论流动儿童对于“家”在不同尺度的想象。研究结果表明:①流动儿童绘画作品中“家”的要素由自然环境要素和人文文化要素构成,既是流动儿童生活经验的表达,也体现了其对“家”的想象与期望,“家”的物质层面与情感层面相互关联相互影响。②基于流动的生活实践,流动儿童对“家”的想象具有多尺度特征,“家”与住所、社区乃至更广泛的空间关联密切,其中社区是流动儿童与地方建立积极情感链接的重要空间;③“家远在故乡”是流动儿童的共同认知,“家”总是指向户籍所在地,体现了流动儿童日常生活空间与“家”的地方归属之间的错位。研究尝试为国内人文地理学的移民研究提供新的理论视角,为“以人为核心的新型城镇化”建设提供案例借鉴,并对城市管理者创设更有利于流动儿童融入的友好环境提供依据。

With a growing trend of family migration,children are increasingly on the move.For children on the move,the most direct experience is the transformation of their homes.“Home”is one of the most important research topics in cultural geography,however,existing literature in human geography tends to focus on adults’experiences,leaving the experiences and subjectivities of migrant children,an integral part of the migrant population,under-researched.Taking QX Village in Panyu District of Guangzhou City as a case study site,this article discuss migrant children’s imaginations of“home”at different scales from a critical geography perspective by analyzing their paintings.To be specific,use children’s art production as the primary research method,supplemented by participatory observation,text analysis and in-depth interviews to fully unpack migrant children’s perceptions of“home”at different spatial scales and its rich material and emotional components.The results show that:1)The element of“home”in the paintings of migrant children consists of the elements of the natural environment and the elements of humanities and culture,which is not only the expression of migrant children’s life experience,but also the expression of imaginations and expectations of“home”,and that the material and emotional dimensions of“home”are related to each other and have mutual influences on each other.2)In the context of mobility,the concept of“home”is closely linked to not only the physical dwelling but also the community and even broader spatial connections.Children have developed a fluid and multi-scalar perception of“home”,encompassing the scales of residence,community and city,with the community being an important medium for migrant children to establish positive emotional connections with a place.3)In the drawings,“Home is far away from hometown”is a common perception among migrant children,and“home”always points to the place where the household registration is located,which reflects the mismatch between migrant children’s daily life space and the place of“home”.In this sense,the geographical location of home does not change with mobility and the hometown remains an ideal and beautiful space.Findings of this study aim to provide a new theoretical perspective for the study of migration in human geography in China,offer detailed empirical evidence for the construction of“human-centered new urbanization”and provide important implications for urban managers to create a friendly environment for the integration of migrant children.