Multi-species encounters in the city: a more-than-human perspective on children’s arts-based exploration of urban natural spaces

In this paper, we suggest that being with/in nature is important for all children but is experienced differently, particularly for urban or city-dwelling children. Recent anxiety about marginalised children’s lack of access to natural spaces, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the potential impacts of this upon their health and wellbeing are very real concerns for community organisations supporting children. As a response, an urban-nature arts-based project with two culturally diverse groups of children in Bristol in the Southwest of England was co-produced with artists, activity providers and academics in the autumn of 2022. This paper presents multi-species encounters from the project and uses more-than-human theory to challenge assumptions about urban-dwelling children’s relationships with, in, and as nature. We consider how child-nature encounters revealed religious, classed, and raced aspects that differently impacted visits to the three sites of urban ‘nature’ across Bristol. We suggest that through arts-based encounters children living in the city were proficient at grappling with the complexities and contradictions of personal and planetary health at a time of increasing climate and health emergencies. Findings suggest further participatory research with urban-dwelling children creatively exploring aspects of the local environment is of merit.