Spatial avoidance or spatial confidence? Young people's agency in the active negotiation of risk and safety in public space

Abstract

This article explores teenage girls' and boys' agency in how they handle risk and promote safety in public space. Based on material from qualitative interviews with Swedish teenagers (from age 16), a small-scale survey and written accounts, it is shown that teenagers actively negotiate risk and promote safety in public space. Drawing on Panelli, Kraack, and Little [2005. “Claiming Space and Community: Rural Women's Strategies for Living with, and Beyond, Fear.” Geoforum 36 (4): 495–508] multidimensional model of situated agency, it is discussed how teenagers choose to draw on, or contest, different dimensions of agency in constructing and handling risk and safety.

Keywords:

• risk
• safety
• public space
• strategies
• agency
• teenage girls and boys

Acknowledgements

The research on which this paper is based was funded by the Swedish Research Council FORMAS (2008-1532) and by Uppsala University. I am also very grateful for helpful comments from anonymous referees and from Ann Grubbström and Katarina Gustafson on an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

1. Pseudonyms were used.

2. Medium income in Uppsala is 245,000 Swedish crowns (SEK)² and the share of foreign-born inhabitants is 25%. The richest neighbourhood (412,000 SEK) has the smallest share of foreign-born inhabitants (7%) and one of the poorest neighbourhood (194,000 SEK) has the largest share of foreign-born people (52%).