Children of Year Zero

Bogyó, Virág (2024) Children of Year Zero. CENTRAL EUROPEAN HORIZONS, 4 (1). pp. 70-102. ISSN 2732-0456

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Abstract

The cruelty of war, the constant presence of death and destruction, the lack of education and play, the constant state of readiness have crippled a generation of children. In the post-war years, one of the primary tasks of social workers was to help both children and adults to find their way back to their traditional roles. For children to become children again, they had to be provided with a safe and healthy environment, with opportunities for learning and play. The examples that will be presented were part of a longer series of efforts that believed in the possibility of democratic functioning based on extensive local communities and self-government, and saw it as a way of reforming the political system or urban planning. The paper first introduces the post-war situation as a terrain of ruins and then presents the importance and main ideas of the Danish Carl Theodor Sørensen and British adventure playground movement and the activist work of the British landscape architect Marjory Allen. The final part turns to the example of Gaudiopolis, the children’s care insitution associated with Gábor Sztehlo in Budapest and gives a detailed account of its structure, constitution, specific agenda and activities.

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