Ethnicity and the integration and exclusion of young people through urban park and recreation provision

Abstract

Following long-term social change in the UK there is a growing political recognition that social and economic disadvantage and exclusion have racial and age-related dimensions. In addressing these issues, much emphasis has been placed on the rhetorical connection between the provision of public leisure facilities and the promotion of social and racial integration. However, while there has been much work related to leisure centres and other built facilities, there has been little consideration of the potential role of urban parks and playgrounds. In addressing this imbalance, the paper finds that public parks are more accessible to ethnic minority youth than other types of leisure facility. However, this accessibility is highly localized and, consequently, uneven. Using a reading of Foucault's heterotropia, the paper argues that while such levels of access reflect the significance of parks and public spaces to ethnic minority youths, such accessibility does not, in itself, imply any degree of social or ethnic integration. Indeed, the colonization by ethnic minority youths of poorly maintained local spaces (rather than good quality parks further from home) suggests that these local spaces may represent little more than temporary havens from the disciplinary structures of the external world.