Senior Lecturer in Human Geography

Contact Details

• Tel: 0116 252 5242
• Email: pk123@le.ac.uk
• Fax: 0116 252 3854
• Office: Bennett Building F46

I joined the Geography department in Leicester in September 2007. Previously, I was a lecturer in geography at The University of Northampton, where I was also a researcher for the Centre for Children and Youth. I completed my geography PhD in 2004 at the University of Wales Swansea.

My research interests fall into four, inter-related areas:

• Geographies of children and young people
• Geographies of mainstream and ‘alternative’ education
• Geographies of architecture
• Utopian theory

Most of my work has involved critical explorations of the lives of children and young people. Principally, I have adopted poststructural perspectives to explore the everyday lives, materials and practices which constitute ‘children’s geographies’. With John Horton (The University of Northampton) I have published a number of theoretical and methodological papers which have opened up new lines of debate in Children’s Geographies. I am also interested in the many ways in which theoretical and applied work can intersect; for example, I am co-editing a book called ‘Critical Geographies of Childhood and Youth: Policy and Practice’. This will be published by Policy Press in 2012.

I have also undertaken significant research on the geographies of both mainstream/State-sponsored and ‘alternative’ education. I have recently published several articles about school design and pupil participation in large-scale schooling (re)building programmes in the UK (see also ‘recent funded research’, below). I am currently writing a monograph about non-mainstream, alternative and informal learning spaces, to be published by Policy Press in 2013. The book explores the significance of space and place in learning practices like Forest Schooling, Human Scale Education, Steiner Schooling, Montessori Schooling and Home Schooling.

Recent Funded Research

In 2009 I completed AHRC/EPSRC joint-funded project entitled “Realising participatory design with children and young people: a case study of design and refurbishment in schools”, in collaboration with Professor Andree Woodcock, (Coventry University), Dr John Horton (The University of Northampton) and Dr Peter Adey (Keele University). For more details, please see the project website.

In May 2009 I began a major, three-year ESRC-funded project entitled "New Urbanisms, New Citizens: children and young people's everyday life and participation in sustainable communities". I am working with Professor Pia Christensen (Warwick University) and Dr John Horton (The University of Northampton). For more details, please see the project website: http://newcitizens.wordpress.com/

From November 2009-March 2010 I contributed to the SHINE: TRUE project, led by Dr Janet Jackson, an ecologist from The University of Northampton. This was a cross-disciplinary research project looking at user experiences of living in sustainable homes built by larger UK developers. This project was funded by the East Midlands Development Agency Higher Education Collaboration Fund.

I have also been involved with over 15 policy and consultancy projects which have explored young people’s opinions of, and participation in, outdoor play, health service provision, anti-social behaviour programmes and employment/education services. I have been (and am) particularly keen to work with local statutory and voluntary agencies collaboratively, in order to foster young people’s participation in decision-making.

External Activities

• Editorial board member, Children’s Geographies
• Treasurer, Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group of the RGS-IBG
• Member of ESRC Peer Review College, 2010-

PhD Supervision

Current

• Sarah Smith, 'An exploration of the relationship between youth culture and community space in new urban places'.
• Cathie Traynor, 'People, Palaces and Wheels - Is this Utopia? A study of ''Bakfietsing'' (cargo-biking) in a neighbourhood of The Hague'.

Research Areas for PhD Supervision

Geographies of children and young people; geographies of architecture; Utopian theory and practice; geographies of education.

• Human Geography Research Themes

Enquiries: If you are interested in studying for a PhD in one of these research areas, please make informal enquiries via geogPhD@le.ac.uk

Most Recent Publications

Kraftl, P. (in press, 2011) Utopian Promise or Burdensome Responsibility? A Critical Analysis of the UK Government’s Building Schools for the Future Policy, accepted for publication in Antipode.

Den Besten, O., Horton, J., Adey, P. and Kraftl, P. (2011) “Claiming events of school (re)design: materialising the promise of Building Schools for the Future”, Social and Cultural Geography 12: 9-26.

Kraftl, P. (2010) “Architectural movements, utopian moments: (in)coherent renderings of the Hundertwasser-Haus, Vienna”, Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography 92: 327-345.

Kraftl, P. (2010) “Geographies of architecture”, Geography Compass 4: 402-415.

Horton, J. and Kraftl, P. (2009) “What (else) matters? Policy contexts, emotional geographies”, Environment and Planning A 41: 2984-3002.

Full listing of publications