Playgrounds

Playgrounds are sites designated as such by adults, designed by adults, and in a variety of ways, monitored, regulated, and governed by adults. It may be that some of the places that children play are chosen by them and are made by their own through habitual use and with no adult involvement or knowledge. Waste ground, derelict buildings, woods, and other out-of-the-way places might be appropriated by children on their terms. Certainly, before the greatly increased adult supervision of children apparent in the United Kingdom and other comparable societies since the 1970s, children have made a great variety of places somewhat their own—even if such ‘ownership’ has also been precarious and relatively ephemeral. Paul Gilroy (1956–), an influential figure in cultural studies and social theory, ...