ABSTRACT
A number of news stories such as this one (see also, for example, for the UK : Eason, 2007; Easton 2007; for France: Legrand, 2005; Hofnung, 2009; Blanchard, 2009), as well as academic sources in children’s geographies, sociology and psychology (see e.g. Ward, 1978; Valentine and McKendrick, 1997; O’Brien et al., 2000; Prezza et al., 2001) point to the fact that children’s unsupervised mobility and play in public outdoor space has dramatically decreased in contemporary Western societies. As it is mostly parents who have the authority to restrict whether and where their children can go out for a walk or play, we can assume that parental control has, simultaneously, increased. Research confirms the predominant role of parents (as opposed to, for example, public provision of play facilities) in determining the degree of children’s access to independent outdoor play (see Valentine and McKendrick, 1997).
