Children absent from streets and squares The ethnography of empty spaces

Abstract

This paper attempts to analyze how discourses surrounding childhood and games are mobilized in school and in its surroundings, in streets and squares of the neighborhood, and how and by which effects they penetrate, constitute, modify, circulate and govern (or not) the bodies of children. The theoretical and methodological framework that guides the analysis is anchored in cultural studies, and the empirical material of this investigation was gathered during ethnographic fieldwork. We argue that the city is not prepared for children and even the small urban squares do not afford a space for children to play in play, Children are absent from these spaces and their families admit to a sense of insecurity and fear that that prevents the child from playing alone in the street.