Danielle Ekman Ladru (previously van der Burgt) is Senior Lecturer in Child and Youth Studies and Associate professor (docent) in Social and Economic Geography. Her main field of interest is child and Youth studies, Mobilities and Geography focusing on children's, young people's and families' social geographies, everyday mobilities and access to public space.

Her current research is on mobile preschools and children's mobility:

• Mobility, informal learning and citizenship in mobile preschools, financed by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences. Project leader: Danielle Ekman Ladru
• A citywide classroom: time-space aspects of mobile preschool pedagogy, financed by The Swedish Research Council. Project leader: Katarina Gustafson

And on sustainable urbanism and children's everyday mobility:

• Sustainable vertical childhoods? Family apartment life and children's everyday mobility and play, financed by Formas. Project leader: Danielle Ekman Ladru
• A city-wide preschool yard? Challenges and possibilities for supporting innercity preschools' mobility and space for play in dense urban environments, financed by Formas. Project leader: Katarina Gustafson

 

Latest publications

Joelsson, T., & Ekman Ladru, D. (2021). Cracks in the well-plastered façade of the Nordic model: reflections on inequalities in housing and mobility in (post-) coronavirus pandemic Sweden. Children's Geographies, 1-9.

Joelsson, Tanja och Ekman Ladru, Danielle (2021), «Den flertydiga tryggheten: risker, platser och mobilitet i barns och ungas vardagsliv». I (O)tryggt. Texter om makt, plats och motstånd, (red. Rönnblom, M., Sandberg, L. och Linander, I.), Premiss förlag.

Gustafson, K., Ekman Ladru, D., & Joelsson, T. (2020). Säkerhet samt upplevelsebaserat lärande i en variation av lärmiljöer–två centrala policyer i mobila förskolor. Nordic Studies in Education, 40(3), 229-248.

Ojala, M., Ekman Ladru, D., & Gustafsson, K. (2020). Parental reasoning on choosing the mobile preschool: Enabling sustainable development or adjusting to a neoliberal society?. Early Childhood Education Journal.

Gustafson, K. & Ekman Ladru, D. (2020): Children’s socialization into the mobile preschool: a priming event collectively performed by novice children, ‘oldtimers’, and pedagogues, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, DOI: 10.1080/1350293X.2020.1755496

Ekman Ladru, D, Gustafson, K. Children's collective embodiment—Mobility practices and materialities in mobile preschools. Popul Space Place. 2020;e2322. 

Harju, A., Balldin, J., Ekman Ladru, D. & Gustafson, K. (2020). Children’s education in ‘good’ nature: Perceptions of activities in nature spaces in mobile preschools. Global studies of childhood.

Ladru, Danielle Ekman, & Katarina Gustafson. "‘Yay, a downhill!’: Mobile preschool children’s collective mobility practices and ‘doing’space in walks in line." Journal of Pedagogy 9.1 (2018): 87-107.

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Children’s prosthetic citizenship as ‘here-and-now’, ‘not-yet’ and ‘not-here’. the case of the mobile preschool

  2021. Danielle Ekman Ladru, Katarina Gustafson, Tanja Joelsson. Social & Cultural Geography

  Article

  Using the case of the mobile preschool we focus on how children's prosthetic citizenship is constructed in relation to notions of mobility and place in the accounts of Swedish mobile preschool professionals. Mobile preschools are preschools in buses that visit different places in and around the city on an everyday basis. Analysis of interviews and workshop discussions with mobile preschool professionals shows how three different conceptualisations of children's 'proper' citizenship operate in parallel in these accounts - children as 'not-yet-citizens', children as 'not-here-citizens' and children as 'here-and-now-citizens'. These different conceptualisations are constructed in relation to the everyday mobility of the mobile preschool and notions of places as more or less beneficial for children's proper future and Swedish citizenship, and reveal how mobility is not only a consequence of citizenship relations but also constitutive of them. This paper contributes to knowledge on how mobility and notions of place constitute ideas on citizenship, and how forms and geographies of mobility produce subjects as more or less citizen.

  Read more about Children’s prosthetic citizenship as ‘here-and-now’, ‘not-yet’ and ‘not-here’. the case of the mobile preschool

• Children's education in 'good' nature: Perceptions of activities in nature spaces in mobile preschools

  2021. Anne Harju (et al.). Global Studies of Childhood 11 (3), 242-251

  Article

  In the Nordic countries, there is a culturally rooted understanding of nature as a ‘good’ place for children. The aim of the article is to deconstruct this understanding by exploring how different mobile preschools – buses that bring children to different places on a daily basis – relate to nature spaces and children’s learning and well-being in them. Based on critical theorization of place and the nature/culture divide, we argue that, while there exists an idealization of nature within the mobile preschool tradition, the ways that nature is viewed as ‘good’ for children differ depending on the children’s ethnic background and residential area. The results show that compensatory ideas are especially vivid when it comes to migrant children who live in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods. Education in nature, aiming at freedom and agency, brought forward in the preschool curriculum in the Nordic countries, seems more reserved for children who already have the right kind of cultural background and language. The ‘other’ children, however, are more likely to receive an education aiming to compensate for something perceived as missing – that is, the ‘right’ kind of capital regarding ‘nature’.

  Read more about Children's education in 'good' nature

• Parental Reasoning on Choosing the Mobile Preschool: Enabling Sustainable Development or Adjusting to a Neoliberal Society?

  2021. Maria Ojala, Danielle Ekman Ladru, Katarina Gustafson. Early Childhood Education Journal 49, 539-551

  Article

  Due to the emergence of new forms of preschools and parents' increased freedom of choice regarding early childhood education, more research on parental preschool preferences is needed. Although preschool offers a seedbed for the development of knowledge and competencies, this development matures through interaction with parents. Therefore, parental expectations and wishes are very likely to affect children's learning. The mobile preschool is a new form of educational practice in Sweden where children travel by bus to different places for play and learning. This form of preschool can potentially lay a foundation for social and ecological sustainability because children learn to meet diverse people, explore different places, and spend time in nature. We interviewed 15 parents of children in a mobile preschool, most from a middle-class background. The main aim was to explore how these parents explain their choice of this type of preschool. Another aim was to identify desirable competencies that the parents think their children will achieve through the mobile preschool. Six themes related to preschool choice were identified; of these themes, being out in nature and enlarging the children's reality were the most prominent. Two clusters of competencies were distinguished: care- and cooperation-oriented competencies, and freedom- and independence-oriented competencies. After analyzing these results in relation to two current educational discourses-education for sustainable development and entrepreneurship in a neoliberal society-we show how parents participate in reproducing these discourses. These findings add novel and important knowledge to the field of early childhood educational practices concerning parental choice and preferences.

  Read more about Parental Reasoning on Choosing the Mobile Preschool

• Children's collective embodiment-Mobility practices and materialities in mobile preschools

  2020. Danielle Ekman Ladru, Katarina Gustafson. Population, Space and Place 26 (3)

  Article

  This article looks at young children's mobility practices in public spaces within the context of a mobile preschool practice (i.e., a preschool in a bus), with a specific focus on how materialities matter in children's mobilities. Using ethnographic data from a mobile preschool, we argue that the mobile preschool group's mobility should be understood in terms of collective embodiment and the mobile preschool should be viewed as a moving collective body in public space through which children can negotiate their own mobility practices and exercise agency. We show how this collective body is constituted through an assemblage and collaboration of children's and teachers' bodies and material objects. Collective embodiment not only enables and supports children's mobilities in public space but also helps young children to appropriate and claim their democratic right to public space through the visible copresence of bodies and things.

  Read more about Children's collective embodiment-Mobility practices and materialities in mobile preschools

• Cracks in the well-plastered façade of the Nordic model: reflections on inequalities in housing and mobility in (post-)coronavirus pandemic Sweden

  2022. Tanja Joelsson, Danielle Ekman Ladru. Children's Geographies 20 (4), 478-486

  Article

  In this paper, Sweden’s situation in and response to the COVID-19 pandemic is discussed. Through examples of overcrowding and public transport, we argue that the pandemic has revealed, and risks reaffirming, existing aged, gendered, ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities in the housing market, and in relation to mobility and transport. The paper seeks to explore how the large scale and widespread housing segregation in Sweden contributes to the unequal spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, we address how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected and continues to affect the mobility of children, young people and families in unequal transport systems.

  Read more about Cracks in the well-plastered façade of the Nordic model

• Children living in pandemic times: a geographical, transnational and situated view

  2022. Susana Cortés-Morales (et al.). Children's Geographies 20 (4), 381-391

  Article

  The aim of this editorial to the Viewpoints Special Issue in Children's Geographies on ‘Children Living in pandemic Times: a geographical, transnational and situated view’ is, on the one hand, to present a transnational general picture of the COVID-19 situation for children. And on the other, to make a call for childhood researchers particularly focused on children's geographies, to collaboratively approach this unprecedented situation. The main aspects of children living in pandemic times as they are identified by the different viewpoints in this special issue are presented, highlighting key commonalities and differences across countries, discussing the aspects that emerge from this phenomenon that seem most relevant for research on children’s geographies in these times. Finally, we refer to some of the studies being conducted in different parts of the world, methodological challenges for children’s geographies research under these circumstances, and emerging research questions.

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• Playing, living, moving – and fearing? Families’ management of risk and safety through play (and) mobility: [Spielen, leben, bewegen – und fürchten? Familienmanagement von Risiko und Sicherheit durch Spiel (und) Mobilität]

  2022. Danielle Ekman Ladru, Tanja Joelsson, Linda Fridén Syrjäpalo. Zeitschrift für Soziologie der Erziehung und Sozialisation / Journal for Sociology of Education and Socialization 42 (2), 117-132

  Article

  This article focuses on the everyday mobilities of families living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Sweden. Through the use of interview material from two ongoing qualitative research projects on families’ apartment living, and on everyday mobility in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, we analyse how families account for the organization of collective family mobilities in order to enable and support children’s play and movement. Departing from a relational understanding of mobility, the article contributes to research on children’s everyday mobilities by focusing on how these are enmeshed with collective family mobilities as well as entangled with the neighbourhood context. The findings show how family play outings to parks, playgrounds and commercial play centres are a way for families to handle risk as well as to do and display ‘togetherness’, through the creation of ‘safe family spaces’ on the move for children’s play and movement. 

  Read more about Playing, living, moving – and fearing? Families’ management of risk and safety through play (and) mobility

• Children's socialization into the mobile preschool: a priming event collectively performed by novice children, 'old-timers', and pedagogues

  2020. Katarina Gustafson, Danielle Ekman Ladru. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 28 (3), 375-390

  Article

  Using video-ethnographic data from a 'try-on day' in a bus-based mobile preschool, we discuss how children with different levels of experience collaborate with one another and with pedagogues to socialize newcomers into an ongoing community. Analyses show how pedagogues create moments of collective orientation and, besides through verbal instructions, invite newcomers to participate in core activities with older children. The novices engage in the priming event by intent participation, while the older children assume, and are assigned, the role of more experienced participants - 'old-timers'. In this collective socialization, old-timers, children, and pedagogues strive to create a smooth transition for novices, particularly by stressing the specificity of participating in a preschool that is mobile and located in a bus. The results illustrate how becoming a mobile preschool child entails understanding and mastering competences such as safely riding the bus, eating meals in the bus, and walking in line in diverse spaces.

  Read more about Children's socialization into the mobile preschool

• Den mångtydiga tryggheten: risker, platser och mobilitet i barns och ungas vardagsliv

  2020. Tanja Joelsson, Danielle Ekman Ladru. (O)tryggt? texter om makt, plats och motstånd

  Chapter

  Kapitlet utgår ifrån intervjuer med barn, unga och deras föräldrar från medelklassfamiljer, där barns och ungas mobilitet, upplevelser och användning av platser på olika sätt varit i fokus. Genom barns och deras föräldrars röster kan vi både få en bild av hur trygghet förstås och skapas i olika sammanhang, men också av hur trygghet är nära förknippat med dess systerbegrepp risk. Att diskutera trygghet i relation till plats och mobilitet behöver med andra ord inbegripa hur föreställningar och upplevelser av hur trygghet hänger samman med föreställningar och upplevelser av risk. I relation till vårt intresseområde, mobilitet och rumslighet, uppfattar vi att det skett både en individualisering och en kollektivisering av risk. Med individualisering menar vi att ansvaret för att hantera vissa risker kopplade till det offentliga rummet och till mobiliteten hamnar på föräldrar och barn, och att den individualiserade riskhanteringen tenderar att få moraliska undertoner och implikationer. Kollektivisering av risk innebär å andra sidan att risk kopplas till en viss plats, ofta ett redan stigmatiserat bostadsområde, och till de grupper eller individer som bor på platsen. Detta påverkar hur barn, unga och deras föräldrar ser på och upplever både sig själva och andra, hur de upplever olika platser och sin och andras mobilitet och trygghet.

  Read more about Den mångtydiga tryggheten

• Säkerhet samt upplevelsebaserat lärande i en variation av lärmiljöer – två centrala policyer i mobila förskolor

  2020. Katarina Gustafson, Danielle Ekman Ladru, Tanja Joelsson. Nordic Studies in Education 40 (3), 229-248

  Article

  Since about a decade there is a new phenomenon in Nordic early childhood education and care, the mobile preschool. It is an ECEC practice conducted on a bus that travels to various locations to perform everyday preschool activities and routines. With theory of policy enactment this article analyzes workshop discussions with mobile preschool professionals. The results show two main policies within mobile preschools; safety as well as experiential learning in a variety of learning environments. While discussing how to handle these policies, the professionals construct the mobile preschool simultaneously as ordinary and unique in relation to ordinary stationary preschools.

  Read more about Säkerhet samt upplevelsebaserat lärande i en variation av lärmiljöer – två centrala policyer i mobila förskolor

• "Farliga platser" och "skumma typer" - rädsla för stadens våld bland barn och deras föräldrar.

  2009. Danielle van der Burgt. Geografiska Notiser (3), 134-141

  Article

  Read more about "Farliga platser" och "skumma typer" - rädsla för stadens våld bland barn och deras föräldrar.

• Teaching nature and nation in the Swedish mobile preschool

  2023. Danielle Ekman Ladru (et al.). Childhood

  Article

  Ideas of nature, nation and childhood are intertwined in Nordic early childhood education. We explore in ethnographic data the ways nature is taught in Swedish mobile preschools. We show how everyday nationalism manifests in the teaching practices of ‘good’ pedagogy in nature. We argue that depending on who is teaching and learning, various constructions of nationhood emerge enabling the re-imagination of a single national imaginary to a plural one.

  Read more about Teaching nature and nation in the Swedish mobile preschool

Show all publications by Danielle Ekman Ladru at Stockholm University