EXAMINING THE AFFORDANCES OF HABITUAL RANGE IN MALAYSIA’S SOCIAL HOUSING THROUGH MARGINALIZED CHILDREN’S PERSPECTIVES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v24i43.2108Keywords:
Social Housing, Children’s perspectives, Habitual Range, Neighborhood Environment, Perceived AffordancesAbstract
This study examines how children living in Malaysia’s urban social housing, in particular the Projek Perumahan Rakyat (PPR), perceive and envision their neighborhood environments within their habitual range. However, within these high-density settings, the issue arises where children’s rights to protection, development, and participation are undermined by spatial constraints that limit their everyday freedoms. To foreground children’s perspectives, a child-centered approach was adopted using child-led walks and children’s drawings with participants aged 7–12 (N=23). These methods triangulated lived experiences with visualized aspirations to identify key environmental affordances that children valued. Findings reveal that safety, comfort, nature, sensory quality, and accessibility are central to children’s priorities. These insights advance child-friendly urbanism by foregrounding the realities of high-density, adult-dominated social housing environments. By evidencing how children navigate current constraints and reimagine improved environments, the study positions them as stakeholders whose perspectives are indispensable for shaping inclusive and context-sensitive environments for children.
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