AN INVESTIGATION OF STREET AFFORDANCES DURING SCHOOL-HOME JOURNEY IN HIGH-DENSITY NEIGHBORHOOD OF NANCHANG, CHINA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v23i38.1830Keywords:
Affordance, School Journey, High-density Neighbourhood, Child-environment Transaction, City of NanchangAbstract
Affordance theory offers an effective approach to exploring how children perceive and engage with their everyday surroundings, providing important perspectives within the field of environmental psychology for research focused on children. This study examines the interaction between children’s actions and the built environment through the lens of affordance theory, which emphasizes the direct perception of environmental functions. Using a taxonomy of affordances, the study investigates children’s immediate actions (actualized affordances) during their homeward journeys, extending the application of affordance theory to Chinese street environments. Previous research often overlooks children’s immediate interactions with their surroundings and fails to capture the dynamic transaction between children and the environment. This study addresses these gaps by examining street affordances in conjunction with children’s perceptual responses to highlight the characteristics of street environments in high-density neighborhoods. The results aim to enhance the understanding of how daily landscapes affect children’s behavior, which has significant implications for designing child-friendly urban environments.
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