Living on a building site

Young people’s experiences of emerging ‘Sustainable Communities’ in England

Bibliographic Data

ID8946017
AuthorsP Kraftl (0000-0002-7915-4808, University of Leicester, corresponding author), P Christensen (0000-0002-9181-8638, University of Leeds), John Horton (0000-0002-2956-2264, University of Northampton), Sophie Hadfield-Hill (0000-0001-5127-013X, University of Northampton)
Year2013
Volume50
Pages191-199
Publication date2013-10-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeoforum (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7185 • E-ISSN: 1872-9398
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.08.009
OpenAlexW2025370104
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited49

This paper examines experiences of young people (9–16) who live in new communities that are under construction. In the context of large-scale housing developments, built in England after 2000, it analyses various ways in which young people engage with life ‘on a building site’. From ethnographic research in three unfinished communities, several inter-linked themes became apparent: how young people engaged with building sites in both aesthetic and material registers; how building sites could, paradoxically, constitute places for both safer play and of significant risk; how such sites could afford sociability whilst simultaneously representing foci for intergenerational tensions. Thus, the paper contributes to studies of architecture/urban design, geographical studies of childhood, and expands a recent call for critical geographies of construction sites. In particular, we argue for the significance of building sites as important, often-overlooked times and places where meaning–making and everyday routines are fostered and normalised in new communities

Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Ethnography · Everyday life · Geography · Meaning (existential · Political science · SAFER · Sociology · Anthropology · Architecture · Children's Rights and Participation · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Urban Planning and Governance · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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