Senior Lecturer Kristina Konstantoni explores the role of play cafés in tackling childhood inequalities
5 June 2026
Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Dr Kristina Konstantoni, will present a research webinar examining play cafés and community family spaces as rights‑based, holistic support for children and families.
On 5 June, Norland staff and students will welcome Dr Kristina Konstantoni, Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies at the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, for a research webinar exploring the potential of play cafés and community family spaces to address childhood inequalities.
The session – Play cafes as holistic family provisions in community spaces: Insights from the travels of a Froebelian Play Cafe – will focus on play as a form of holistic family support, drawing on Konstantoni’s Being, Learning, Sharing, Doing research praxis, with case studies from play cafés in Greece and Scotland. These ‘one‑stop’ community provisions, which bring together play, early learning, childcare and wider family support within a single space, are increasingly recognised as both effective and cost‑efficient solutions for combatting childhood inequalities.
Kristina will argue that when play cafés and community family spaces are designed with rights‑based and child‑ and family‑centred pedagogical intention, and grounded in knowledge‑informed practice, they can meet the needs of both children and carers. This includes providing access to high‑quality play opportunities, early learning and childcare, alongside broader forms of holistic family support.
Kristina Konstantoni is Co‑Director of the Children and Young People Thematic Hub and Co‑Founder and Co‑Director of the Early Years Research, Policy and Practice Group at the University of Edinburgh, as well as a member of the Childhood and Youth Studies research group. Her research interests span include children’s rights, childhoods and intersectionality; children’s human rights in informal learning public play spaces like community and business play-cafes; and children and young people’s human rights and participation in research, practice and policy making.
Her work is both in Scotland and with cross-national partners in such places as Greece, Brazil, Eswatini, South Africa, Palestine and Germany. Kristina is also co‑author of the recent book Critical Childhood Studies: Global Perspectives, published by Bloomsbury.
This webinar forms part of Norland’s research webinar series, which brings leading early years researchers to Norland to share and discuss research with staff and students, supporting evidence‑informed practice and critical engagement with contemporary issues in childhood studies.
Recent publications from Kristina Konstantoni:
- Konstantoni, K., Eri-Tantawi. I.H, Mozaffar, R. Dimoulia, A., (forthcoming) What are Play Cafes? Thinking through the ingredients to designing Play Cafes. Childhood.
- Wright, H.V.L., Davidson, E., Konstantoni, K., Kustatscher, M., Padilla, K., E. Kay M. Tisdall (2024) Conceptualising and Researching Child and Youth Activism, Children & Society, 38 (3): 729-978.
- Konstantoni, K., Bateson, S., Eri Tantawi, H. I., Mozaffar, R, Khalfaoui, A., and Dimoulia, A. (2025) The travels of a Froebelian Mobile Play Cafe initiative: A critical analysis of applying Froebelian principles in community spaces.
- In McNair, L and Addison, L. (eds). The Power of Froebel in Early Childhood Education: Exploring Ideas, Practice and Impact in Scotland. Routledge.
- Wright, H.V.L., Davidson, E., Konstantoni, K., Kustatscher, M., Padilla, K., E. Kay M. Tisdall (2024) Conceptualising and Researching Child and Youth Activism, Children & Society, 38 (3): 729-978.
- Wright, H.V.L., Kustatscher, M., Konstantoni, K., Padilla, K., Davidson, E., Tisdall, K. (2024) Rethinking child and youth activism in challenging times. Children & Society, 38 (3): 729-743.
- Tisdall, K., Davis, J., Fry, D., Konstantoni, K., Kustatscher, M., Maternowska, C., & Weiner, L. (2023). Critical Childhood Studies: Global Perspectives. (1 ed.) Bloomsbury Academic.https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/critical-childhood-studies-9781350163218/
- Konstantoni, K. (2021) Radical democratic citizenship at the edge of life: young children, cafés and intergenerational and intersectional activism, Identities, 29:1, 80-87 DOI: 10.1080/1070289X.2021.2017591
- Konstantoni, K. (2020) Intersectionality in Cook, D. (eds) SAGE Encyclopaedia of Children and Childhood Studies, SAGE: London.
- Konstantoni, K. and Patsianta, K. (2019) Young Children’s Rights in ‘tough’ times: Towards an intersectional children’s rights policy agenda in Greece and Scotland, in: Murray, J. Swadener, B. B. and Smith, K. (eds) Routledge International Handbook of Young Children’s Rights.
- Children’s Rights to Education – Where is the Weight for Children’s Views? International Journal of Children’s Rights
- Konstantoni, K. and Emejulu, A. (2017) When Intersectionality Met Childhood Studies: The Dilemmas of a Travelling Concept. Children’s Geographies, 15(1): 6-22.
- Konstantoni, K., Kustatscher, M. and Emejulu, A. (2017) Editorial Introduction: Travelling with intersectionality across time, place and space. Guest editorial for special issue “Intersectionality and Childhood Studies: A Critical Dialogue across Time, Space and Place”. Children’s Geographies 15 (1):1-5.
