Other Urbanisms - the Place of Children in the Dutch City

This research project focuses on the place of playing children in the urban public domain ('childhood urbanisms'). Children are often considered as 'out of place' on city streets. On the one hand, children belong in the city, on the other their presence in the public domain of the city is often considered as dangerous, undesirable or unsafe. Because of this ambivalent status, a wide spectrum of urban policies and practices has since the 19th century focused on devising, producing and managing urban children's spaces. Urban planners, architects, pedagogues, sociologists, entrepreneurs, ngo's, politicians, civil servancts, and many other professionals have concerned themselves with the issue of playing children in the public domain over the past 100 years. This project's research focus is how urbanism deals with the production of play space for children in the public domain of Dutch cities. Through the development of (historic) casestudies, key moments in playground history are analysed using socio-spatial theory.