Intergenerational sport mobilities: the materialities and experiences of doing junior parkrun together

Abstract

This paper aims to explores affective, sensory and material-mobility relations (Cook Citation2023) in the under-researched context of intergenerational participation in junior parkrun, in the UK. Junior parkrun is an international free, weekly 2 km event for children aged 4-14 and accompanying adults. Despite junior parkrun’s widespread growth since 2010, and parkrun’s current strategic focus on expanding participation, no published research has examined intergenerational participation in such organised running events. Addressing this gap is timely given concerns over children’s declining physical activity. To do so, we used a ‘palette of methods’ approach with children (aged 4-7), and adult family members who these young children participate in junior parkrun with. Methods comprised of intergenerational interviews, drawing-elicitation interviews, and autoethnography. This paper contributes to mobilities studies, children’s geographies, and sports studies by bringing to the fore the embodied and material affects of adults and children running together in the previously unexplored context of junior parkrun.