Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Young Peoples Play With Urban Public Space: Geographies of Hanging Out

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Play and Recreation, Health and Wellbeing

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 9))

Abstract

This chapter looks into young people’s hanging out in the context of urban public space. Against a reviewed background of earlier research, the phenomenon is explored by discussing the privatization of public space that is taking place in Western countries. Due to “security talk” and widely shared notions of “safety,” young people have few opportunities for independent mobility. Young people’s lives are often highly scheduled with school and organized activities, and they are pushed to spend even their limited free time at places specifically appointed for them. They are thus spatially planned “out” from the public. As a result of this development, shopping malls and other commercial spaces that are considered safe have become important scenes in the geographies of hanging out. For that reason, the chapter gives special attention to hanging out that goes on in consumption spaces and the ways in which young people negotiate the boundaries of public and private. This discussion is connected both to considering young people’s rights to the city and to evaluating urban spaces by their “tightness”/“looseness.” Finally, hanging out is approached as play with urban space. While hanging out, young people “actively do nothing” and are thus open to changes of direction and to encounters with people and places. They creatively carve out space away from the adult gaze and, though often only momentarily, make “loose spaces.” Hanging out thus adds to cultivating lively, mixed-use cities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 289.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aitken, S. C. (2001). Geographies of young people: The morally contested spaces of identity. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ameel, L., & Tani, S. (2012). Parkour: Creating loose spaces? Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 94(1), 17–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amin, A., & Thrift, N. (2002). Cities: Reimagining the urban. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anthony, K. H. (1985). The shopping mall: A teenage hangout. Adolescence, 20(78), 307–312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, A. (1999). Subcultures or neo-tribes? Rethinking the relationship between youth style and musical taste. Sociology, 33(3), 599–617.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, J. (2001). The enchantment of modern life. Attachments, crossings, and ethics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bickford, S. (2000). Constructing inequality: City spaces and the architecture of citizenship. Political Theory, 28(3), 355–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, D. M. (2013). Young people, anti-social behavior and public space: The role of Community Wardens in policing the ‘ASBO generation’. Urban Studies, 50(3), 538–555.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Childress, H. (2004). Teenagers, territory and the appropriation of space. Childhood, 11(2), 195–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiu, C. (2009). Contestation and conformity: Street and park skateboarding in New York City public space. Space and Culture, 12(1), 25–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crampton, J. W., & Elden, S. (Eds.). (2007). Space, knowledge and power. Foucault and geography. Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, M. (1992). The world in a shopping mall. In M. Sorkin (Ed.), Variations on a theme park: The new American city and the end of public space (pp. 3–30). New York: Hill and Wang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, M. (1990). City of quartz: Excavating the future in Los Angeles. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernando, N. A. (2007). Open ended space: Urban streets in different cultural contexts. In K. A. Franck & Q. Stevens (Eds.), Loose space: Possibility and diversity in urban life (pp. 54–72). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Franck, K. A., & Stevens, Q. (2007). Tying down loose space. In K. A. Franck & Q. Stevens (Eds.), Loose space: Possibility and diversity in urban life (pp. 54–72). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gearin, E., & Kahle, C. (2006). Teen and adult perceptions of urban green space Los Angeles. Children, Youth and Environments, 16(1), 25–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, T. (2008). Space-oriented children’s policy: Creating child-friendly communities to improve children’s well-being. Children and Society, 22, 136–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1963). Behavior in public spaces. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, K., & Gray, S. F. (1999). Civil rights, civil wrongs and quasi-public space. European Human Rights Law Review, 1(4), 46–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, A. (2004). Future girl. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horton, J. (2010). ‘The best thing ever’: How children’s popular culture matters. Social & Cultural Geography, 11(4), 378–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horton, J., Kraftl, P., & Tucker, F. (2011). Spaces-in-the-making, childhoods-on-the-move. In P. Foley & S. Leverett (Eds.), Children and young people’s spaces: Developing practice (pp. 40–57). Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, P. (1998). Domesticating the street: The contested spaces of the high street and the mall. In N. R. Fyfe (Ed.), Images of the street: Planning, identity and control in public space (pp. 178–191). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katz, C. (2006). Power, space, and terror: Social reproduction and the public environment. In S. Low & N. Smith (Eds.), The politics of public space (pp. 105–121). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koskela, H. (2000). ‘The gaze without eyes’: Video-surveillance and the changing nature of urban space. Progress in Human Geography, 24(2), 243–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • L’Aoustet, O., & Griffet, J. (2004). Sharing public space: Youth experience and socialization in Marseille’s Borely Park. Space and Culture, 7(2), 173–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, N., & Motzkau, J. (2011). Navigating the bio-politics of childhood. Childhood, 18(1), 7–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonard, M. (2006). Teens and territory in contested spaces: Negotiating sectarian interfaces in Northern Ireland. Children’s Geographies, 4(2), 225–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lieberg, M. (1995). Teenagers and public space. Communication Research, 22(6), 720–744.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahtani, M. (2011). David Sibley. In P. Hubbard & R. Kitchin (Eds.), Key thinkers on space and place (2nd ed., pp. 368–373). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malone, K. (2002). Street life: Youth, culture and competing uses of public space. Environment and Urbanization, 14(2), 157–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malone, K. (2007). The bubble-wrap generation: Children growing up in walled gardens. Environmental Education Research, 13(4), 513–527.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matthews, H., Taylor, M., Percy-Smith, B., & Limb, M. (2000). The unacceptable Flaneur: The shopping mall as a teenage hangout. Childhood, 7(3), 279–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCulloch, K., Stewart, A., & Lovegreen, N. (2006). ‘We just hang out together’: Youth cultures and social class. Journal of Youth Studies, 9(5), 539–556.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, D. (1997). The annihilation of space by law: The root and implications of anti-homeless laws in the United States. Antipode, 29(3), 303–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, D. (2003). The right to the city: Social justice and the fight for public space. New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nairn, K., Panelli, R., & McCormack, J. (2003). Destabilizing dualisms: Young people’s experiences of rural and urban environments. Childhood, 10(1), 9–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Németh, J. (2009). Defining a public: The management of privately owned public space. Urban Studies, 46(11), 2463–2490.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, J., Kintrea, K., & Bannister, J. (2012). Invisible walls and visible youth: Territoriality among young people in British cities. Urban Studies, 49(5), 945–960.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pyyry, N. (2015). ‘Sensing with’ photography and ‘thinking with’ photographs in research into teenage girls’ hanging out. Children’s Geographies. 13(2), 149–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pyyry, N. (2014). Learning with the city via enchantment: photo-walks as creative encounters. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. doi:10.1080/01596306.2014.929841.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rautio, P., & Winston, J. (2013). Things and children in play – Improvisation with language and matter. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. doi:10.1080/01596306.2013.830806.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sibley, D. (1988). Survey 13: Purification of Space. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 6(4), 409–421.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skelton, T., & Gough, K. V. (2013). Introduction: Young people’s im/mobile urban geographies. Urban Studies, 50(3), 455–466.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sommer, R. (1974). Tight Spaces: Hard Architecture and How to Humanize It. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sorkin, M. (Ed.). (1992). Variations on a theme park: The new American city and the end of public space. New York: Hill and Wang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, Q. (2007). The ludic city: Exploring the potential of public spaces. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tani, S. (2014). Loosening/tightening spaces in the geographies of hanging out. Social & Cultural Geography. doi:10.1080/14649365.2014.952324.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, M. E. (2005). Girls, consumption space and the contradictions of hanging out in the city. Social & Cultural Geography, 6(4), 587–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thrift, N. (2000). Afterwords. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 18(2), 213–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Travlou, P., Owens, P., Eubanks, W., Thompson, C., & Maxwell, L. (2008). Place mapping with teenagers: Locating their territories and documenting their experiences of the public realm. Children’s Geographies, 6(3), 309–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, G. (2004). Public space and the culture of childhood. Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Blerk, L. (2013). New street geographies: The impact of urban governance on the mobilities of Cape Town’s street youth. Urban Studies, 50(3), 556–573.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Lieshout, M., & Aarts, N. (2008). “Outside is where it’s at!” Youth and immigrants perspectives on public spaces. Space and Culture, 11(4), 497–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanderbeck, R. M., & Johnson, J. H., Jr. (2000). “That’s the only place where you can hang out”: Urban young people and the space of the mall. Urban Geography, 21(1), 5–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Voyce, M. (2006). Shopping malls in Australia: The end of public space and the rise of ‘consumerist citizenship’? Journal of Sociology, 42(3), 269–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walsh, C. (2008). The Mosquito: A repellent response. Youth Justice, 8(2), 122–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weller, S., & Bruegel, I. (2009). Children’s ‘place’ in the development of neighbourhood social capital. Urban Studies, 46(3), 629–643.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woolley, H. (2006). Freedom of the city: Contemporary issues and policy influences on children and young people’s use of public open space in England. Children’s Geographies, 4(1), 45–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woolley, H., & Johns, R. (2001). Skateboarding: The city as a playground. Journal of Urban Design, 6(2), 211–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki, Siltavuorenpenger 3A, P.O. Box 9, FI-00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Noora Pyyry & Sirpa Tani

Authors
  1. Noora Pyyry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sirpa Tani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Noora Pyyry .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Bethan Evans

  2. Centre of Children and Youth, The University of Northampton, Northampton, United Kingdom

    John Horton

  3. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore Department of Geography, Singapore, Singapore

    Tracey Skelton

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

About this entry

Cite this entry

Pyyry, N., Tani, S. (2016). Young Peoples Play With Urban Public Space: Geographies of Hanging Out. In: Evans, B., Horton, J., Skelton, T. (eds) Play and Recreation, Health and Wellbeing. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 9. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-51-4_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation