Natalya Rakitina

Eugenia Kupryashkina

Alexandra G. Filipova

The article reviews foreign research in the field of children’s geographies and sociology of childhood. The field of children geographies has emerged since S. James’ article in the journal “Area” in 1990. Children geographies is the branch of human geography. It deals with the study of places and spaces of children lives. It has been influenced by ideas of new sociology of childhood, such as plurality of the children’s worlds, child-actor, the participating method, etc. The aim of the review is to mark out features of new socio-geographical research direction. These features are new methods, new concepts, new research fields etc. The empirical base for the review was formed by the articles of two international journals – “Children Geographies” and “Childhood”. In addition “Journal of environmental psychology”, “Children and society”, “Children, Youth and Environments”, and monographs of foreign authors were analyzed. As a result of study five main directions of socio-geographical research of childhood were offered. They are a children game and its spaces, children and street, children mobilities, child-friendly cities, childhood and space at macro social level. Socio-graphical direction of the childhood study solves not only a task of spaces and places representations of childhood, but also a task of comprehending gaps between the world of children and the world of adults. In the Russian sociological practice the socio-geographical direction at this moment is poorly presented. In the available works the childhood is investigated at the local level of a city or of a city district. So foreign research can give methodological reference points and provide domestic scientists with necessary methods and even the developed tools, give them empirical material for comparative research.