The BIN Norden Conference team are very sorry to announce that the BIN Conference BIN 2020: Designing for Play in New Nordic Childhood has been cancelled.

This is due to the current COVID situation and its unpredictable nature. We have chosen to cancel the event for the measure of safety as we wouldn't be able to ensure the proper safety at a physical event. We are of course very regretful but feel this is the best course of action.

However, we still want to highlight the community, the network and the sharing of great work and research that has been done. We are changing gears to create a shorter free webinar centered around the content and keynote speakers. We extend an invitation to all selected authors for abstracts and panels to present your work. We will open several tracks for hosting presentations of approximately 20 minutes each(10 min presentations + 10 questions and discussions).

The webinar will be on the 3rd and 4th of March. Please keep updated about this event her and on the BIN Conference Facebook Page where we will share more information continuously. 

Regretfully, art & demos and workshops are fully cancelled.

If you want to withdraw your submission
If you do not wish to be considered for the BIN webinar or digital proceedings publication, we will encourage you to delete your submission from Easy Chair or send an email to binconference2020@dskd.dk as soon as possible with your information and 'Withdraw submission' in the subject line.

Proceedings publication
We are also still creating a digital proceedings publication of the selected work. The contributing authors will receive an invitation to submit for two special publication issues during the spring.

The recognition of the importance of play in childhood is deeply rooted in the Nordic research on child culture. At the same time, it is increasingly difficult to maintain the advocacy for play only driven by the participants without adult facilitation.

Designing for Play in New Nordic Childhood will explore how it is possible to design for play and initiating a discussion on how we can insist on the qualities of play from the perspective of the participants.

The BIN Norden webinar takes place in Collaboration with Design School Kolding, Playful Learning Programme, University College Copenhagen, LEGO House and Billund Kommune. 

The aim of the Nordic webinar is to strengthen the Nordic community on child culture research and promote the formation of a Nordic network of researchers bringing child culture research and design research together.

BIN-Norden (Children's Culture Researchers in the Nordic Countries) is a Nordic, multidisciplinary research network that is intended to support Nordic children's culture research. The network focuses on humanistic and aesthetic approaches to children's culture, but is also open to researchers with other approaches. BIN-Norden has over 200 members. Most are active researchers, but the network also includes intermediaries, artists and people who primarily work with cultural administration.

The BIN-Norden was established in conjunction with a Nordic symposium "Children's folklore in transformation" in Aaland in 1988. A working group consisting of Christer Dominder from Sweden, Flemming Mouritsen from Denmark, Åse Enerstvedt and Ivar Selmer-Olsen from Norway was established.

Initially, they were preoccupied with children's folklore and children's own culture. In the mid-90s, there was also a focus on culture for and with children. At the same time, the network was more formalized with a steering committee and grants from the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The BIN-Norden is led by a Nordic steering committee with representatives from all the Nordic countries and the chairmanship and secretariat functions are changing.

From 1988 BIN-Norden has had the following leadership:

• Christer Dominder; Sweden 1988 - 1996
• Ivar Selmar-Olsen; Norway 1997 - 2003
• Beth Juncker; Denmark 2003 - 2013
• Elin Eriksen Ødegaard and Jorunn Spord Borgen, Norway 2013 – 2017
• Helle Marie Skovbjerg and Niels-Peder Osmundsen Højllund 2018-