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Enacting Traffic Spaces

University of Helsinki, Finland

Children's mobility in Euro-American settings is increasingly circumscribed by adult surveillance and escorting, reflecting broader cultural constructions of safety and risk, autonomy, and protection. This article explores the spatial limits and possibilities of childhood in relation to everyday traffic. It describes a series of pedagogical interventions in a traffic park, where young children are prepared for the events of daily traffic by staging traffic encounters during classes and exercises. Analyzing these enactments through four forms of relational space developed in science and technology studies, the article brings out and contrasts the normativities framing the relationship between children and traffic, some taking determinate, others more fluid and ambivalent shapes. Arguing that neither traffic nor childhood are unitary phenomena but emerge out of diverse ideals and experiences, the article suggests that "good" traffic spaces and agencies are made possible only through ongoing engagement between the different bodies, materials, and hopes of mundane settings.

Key Words: childhood • traffic • education • mobility • goods

Space and Culture, Vol. 12, No. 2, 205-217 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1206331209331598


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