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Lia Karsten is associate professor in Urban Geographies at the University of Amsterdam/AISSR. Her research interests include three interrelated topics: children’s  geographies , changing family life and in/exclusion in public space. Over the last decades she published many articles and several books on changing childhood in the Netherlands. She coined the concept of the back-seat generation illustrating the complex accessibility of public space for children.  Together with her PhD-students she completed studies on the division of tasks within families, the rise of dual-location households and  the reclaiming of the city by middle-class families. Lia Karsten is particularly interested in exploring new forms of childhood and family life in the context of  the growing density in cities. Over the years, she has been engaged in several projects regarding the (gendered) use of urban public space in parks, pubs, playgrounds and squares. Lia Karsten has been successful in receiving grants from the national research council and several NGO’s. She is a member of the international advisory board of the British journal Children's Geographies and of the American journal Children, Youth and Environments (CYE). She is a member of the editorial board of Urban Studies Research. Besides her job at the university she works as a  consultant on policy directed studies and advisory  projects. 

Recent international recognition:

• Nomination for an honorary doctorate at Uppsala University (2010).
• Visiting Professorship Uppsala University, March through April 2011.
• Visiting Professorship City University of New York (CUNY)/ Graduate School, May through June 2011.
  

The photo above symbolises my three interrelated research interests. I made this picturer myself in the Amsterdam Oosterpark on a sunny summer afternoon. It shows how families with little children from very divers backgrounds spend time in a popular urban public space. It is -  at the same time - a real and idyllic situation of public space as ameeting place between different groups in the context of the multi-cultural city of to-day. 


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