Factors affecting adolescents’ use of urban public spaces in their leisure time: an exploratory study from the city of Vienna

ABSTRACT

Urban public spaces are important areas for leisure, recreation and physical activity and therefore contribute to the quality of life in cities. In particular, for adolescents they provide important spaces to meet with their peers, away from parental or school control. In many cities worldwide, public spaces have undergone severe developmental processes, and often a withdrawal from public space is noted. With regard to the opportunities those spaces provide for adolescents, it is necessary to investigate their current meaning for adolescents in a leisure context. In this article, qualitative research methods were used to investigate factors affecting adolescents’ use of public spaces in Vienna, Austria. In total 45 adolescents were interviewed. Results show that public open spaces are not regarded as important leisure spaces, and data reveal a strong retreat to private areas for leisure purposes. Perceived insecurities and fears support these processes and often result in avoidance of public spaces but also the wish for more control by authorities.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescents
• urban public space
• private space
• leisure behaviour
• avoidance
• qualitative research methods

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Andreas Muhar http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7623-5859

Additional information

Funding

This research was conducted within the project “I AM HERE!” – a participatory research education cooperation project funded by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy within the “Sparkling Science” program (Schauppenlehner et al., 2012; Schauppenlehner, Höglhammer, Muhar, & Eder, 2013).