ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses spatial aspects of young people’s participation through a closer look at spatial appropriation practices. It looks at public or semi-public places in the city that young people appropriate as their homes. The chapter focuses on processes that, within the home and urban studies debates, are commonly defined as domestication of public space as a specific way by which young people turn spaces into meaningful and familiar places. It inquires into what it means for young people to feel at home – or not at home – in the city and how they take part in city life by making ‘homes’ in public places. The chapter discusses the practices of home-making carried on, in the city of Zurich, by the members of the Alternative Education Centre, an alternative education project that fosters free education, especially for undocumented migrants and asylum seekers.
