Risk, nostalgia and the production of the ideal childhood in online commentary on children’s outdoor play

ABSTRACT

We use Foucauldian discourse analysis to examine comments posted online in response to news articles that reported on one Canadian neighbourhood’s ‘ban’ on children’s outdoor play. Our analysis showed that reader comments, both for and against the ban on street play, accessed discourses of risk that produced an idealised childhood based on close parental supervision. Additionally, nostalgic discourse, the feeling that unfettered, wholesome outdoor play has been lost and cannot be reclaimed, also made claims about who the ideal childhood is for. While marginalised children continue to experience disadvantage that inherently exposes them to risks daily, White, middle class children already have access to safer streets, both parent presence or unquestioned but appropriate parental absence, and play in the streets can be part of their everyday lives. We consider how the idealised childhoods produced by discourses of risk and nostalgia influence the materiality of children’s outdoor play, including how children’s time is organised and who gets to organise it, how play is experienced and who gets to experience it; in ideal ways, in ideal spaces, and for the ideal child.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood
• outdoor play
• risk
• nostalgia
• online commentary

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Erin K. Sharpe

Erin K. Sharpe is Associate Professor and current Chair of the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario. Her research explores the social, spatial, and discursive terrain of young people at play and its implications for young people.

Fenton Litwiller

Fenton Litwiller is a leisure scholar and Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management. Litwiller’s research program emphasizes the use of critical inquiry to investigate inclusive recreation environments. They are currently developing a project driven by interrelated research questions about gender, youth, sexuality, and play.

Karen Gallant

Karen Gallant is an Assistant Professor in the School of Health and Human Performance at Dalhousie University, in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her research examines and highlights the role of community-based recreation settings and experiences in facilitating social inclusion, and explores the nature and implications of those interactions for individual and community wellbeing.