Schools, Parks and Play Station: Institutional production of children’s geographies

Abstract

In the everyday life of children, apart from their families, schools, kids and youth clubs as well as mobile social work are important factors that influence children’s geographies, and, in particular, the appropriation of parks and other public spaces. Everyday geographies of children growing up in poverty often show distinctively less variety than those of other children. This indicates processes of exclusion. Spaces of education, play and care are part of boundary-making between social groups and also between social groups of children. Therefore, they must be understood in their institutional and local context. This contribution attempts to unfold factors confining the appropriation of space by marginalised 8- to 13-year-olds, with a focus on institutional factors in education and social work. Based on research around a network of educational institutions in an upscale district of Vienna, I ask how patterns of selection and stigmatisation on the institutional level affect children’s margins of play.