To what extent, and in what ways, is the enjoyment of public space compromised in contemporary society for young people?

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09/05/2007                0232748

Matriculation no: 0232748

Social and Cultural Geography

Word count: 3000

TO WHAT EXTENT, AND IN WHAT WAYS, IS THE ENJOYMENT OF PUBLIC SPACE COMPROMISED IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE?

To what extent, and in what ways, is the enjoyment of public space compromised in contemporary society for young people?

Introduction

Childhood is a socio-cultural construction categorised as distinct from adulthood and then divided into competing positive and negative representations; children and youths respectively. Ambiguity surrounds children as active participants in constructing and contesting everyday life,  yet also requiring parental and state guidance due to the experience and competence of adults. Public space is often restricted by the privatisation of consumption and prevailing notions of a moral order. From the street to shopping malls, these are normatively assumed as adult space where CCTV and social surveillance condemns noisy, destructive or non-consumption behaviour. Parks and playgrounds are often associated with young people but research on their own perspectives conveys more dynamic use of public space to (re)create collective and individual identities (Valentine, 1997).

The media has often fuelled ‘moral panics’ about youth crime and the need to constrain their spatial mobility. Curfews in the USA and NZ (Collins and Kearns, 2000), and the UK (Atkinson, 2003) are extremely controversial methods to control youth movement. This is evident since young people can potentially be constructed as either equal citizens in society who should be consulted in political decisions (Matthews et al, 1999), or demonised as the ‘other’ who are feared and monitored by police and local government. Fear of crime is linked to a multiple layer of meanings attached to places and this affects how youths are negatively labelled and their own interpretations of public space are often ignored. This paper aims to explore the various ways of understanding young people’s use of space. Access to public space is compromised, but to an extent, there are many ways of resisting structural constraints on socio-spatial mobility in contemporary society.

Research has importantly adopted a qualitative approach to convey the understanding of young people’s place in society and their agency in public space (Dwyer, 1999; Valentine, 2000; Nayak, 2003). Young people are actively resisting the dominant ‘adultist’ ideologies of childhood and constantly (re)construct identities through consumption spaces, school playgrounds and the street. This demonstrates resistance to marginalisation in society and positively reacting to their commonality of experience as different from adults. In contrast, political structures such as education and government still conceive young people as subordinate and subject to curfews, anti-social behaviour orders and general fear and disapproval of a ‘yob culture’ in both urban and rural spaces (Kraak and Kenway, 2002).

Young people’s perspectives and use of public space

There are various competing images of childhood which tend to place children in a category of incompetent, immature and vulnerable ‘angels’, and young people as violent, aggressive and irresponsible ‘devils’. This can have significant consequences on the restraint or subtle manipulation of an age-distinctive group in public spaces. Before the age of 11, in a number of studies, parental understandings of young people suggest that, contingent on individual traits, they generally lack competence and require boundaries to their spatial movement (Valentine, 1997). However, interviews with young people imply their perceptions of risk and safety are more dynamic and complex than adults assume based on the over-simplified adult-child dichotomy. Like adults, young people are actively constructing their self and social identities in a variety of contexts including school, the street and parks.

Even the school lunch break can demonstrate the importance of understanding the micro-geographies of peer interaction. Narratives of identity are constructed and contested in these public places where “they resist adult social practices by creating their own at school and in the street” (Valentine, 2000: 57). During school lunch breaks, young people interact and develop their own individuality at the same time as striving to conform and avoid exclusion. In analysing the use of playground space, where teacher authoritarian surveillance is limited, Valentine (2000) conveys the importance of understanding how young people need access to public space as much as adults. Notably a ‘spatial marking of gender’ was witnessed as young men would be expected to display physical strength and staying power such as, drinking or smoking in the playing fields. In contrast, young females would use the toilet space away from ‘the adult gaze’ to express femininity and maturity.

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Children are consciously aware of their surroundings and instead of marginalisation in society, should be acknowledged for their ability to make rational choices. Literature that shows the skills and diverse range of young people’s lives has the scope to emphasise that, like adults they are competent in assessing and developing mental maps of safe and unsafe areas. Harden (2000) has demonstrated that “children’s perceptions of risk are complex and contingent on many different but interrelated factors involving space, time, behaviour and people” (45). Hence, during the transition to adulthood, access to public space is an equally, if not more ...

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