Beyond Resilience: Exploring a Concept of Place-Based Healing for Children in War

Abstract

Millions of children in the world today suffer greatly in war torn and conflict. The role of the built environment has been overlooked in the study of children's resilience. The interdependent relationship between children and environment, examined as children's experience of place, can act as a lens from which we can view children's resilience in chaotic environments. This research explores a concept of place-based healing through understanding how children experience war from an environmental perspective. The study is based on three narrative accounts of young Iraqi women who have; as children, lived in unstable and war-torn environments. Their stories, gathered through interviews and prolonged correspondence, will, through an interpretive phenomenological analysis, attempt to uncover the deep meanings of resilience and its relationship to place-meanings, mainly through attachments, and what implications that might have on a more inclusive design for the healing child.