View source for Children's street culture

{{Short description|Children's behavior on the streets}}
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[[Image:Children playing in street, New York.jpg|right|thumbnail|Young boys playing in a [[New York City]] street, 1909]]
[[File:Black children playing leap frog in a Harlem street, ca. 1930 - NARA - 541880.jpg|thumb|Children playing leap frog in a Harlem street, {{Circa|1930}}]]
[[Image:Tehran Snapshot 01103.JPG|right|thumbnail|Young boys playing on a sidewalk, 2013, [[Tehran]]]]
'''Children's street culture''' refers to the cumulative [[culture]] created by young [[children]]. Collectively, this body of knowledge is passed down from one generation of urban children to the next, and can also be passed between different groups of children (e.g. in the form of [[fad|craze]]s, but also in intergenerational mixing). It is most common in children between the ages of seven and twelve. It is strongest in urban [[working class|working-class]] [[industrial district]]s where children are traditionally free to [[Play (activity)|play outside]] in the streets for long periods without supervision.

==Difference from mass media culture==
Children's street culture is invented and largely sustained by children themselves, although it may come to incorporate fragments of [[media culture]] and toys in its activities. It is not to be confused with the commercial [[Mass media|media]]-culture produced ''for'' children (e.g., [[comics]], [[television]], mass-produced [[toy]]s, and clothing), although it may overlap.

==Location and play materials==
{{see|Street games}}
[[File:Drawing_by_Marguerite_Martyn_of_children_enjoying_a_shower_from_a_street-cleaning_wagon,_1914.jpg|thumb|Drawing by [[Marguerite Martyn]] of children playing in the rush of water from a street-cleaning wagon, St. Louis, Missouri, 1914]]

Young children's street culture usually takes place on quiet backstreets and sidewalks, and along routes that venture out into local [[park]]s, [[playground]]s, scrub and wasteland, and to local shops. It can often incorporate many found and scavenged materials such as old car seats, tires, planks, bricks, etc. Sometimes found materials will be combined to create objects (e.g. making [[Guy Fawkes#Popularity|guys]] for [[Guy Fawkes Night]]<ref>Beck 1984</ref>).

Play will often incorporate [[fad|craze]]s (sometimes incorporating seasonal elements that are freely collected, such as [[conkers]], snowballs, sycamore seeds). It also imposes imaginative status on certain sections of the urban realm (local buildings, street objects, road layouts, etc.).

In summer, children may use scavenged materials to create a temporary and semi-hidden "den" or "hideout" or "HQ" in a marginal area near their homes, which serves as an informal meeting and relaxation place.<ref>Sobel, 2001</ref> An urban area that looks faceless or neglected to an adult may have deep "[[spirit of place]]" meanings in children's street culture.

==History and research==
Although children's street activity varies from place to place, research shows that it appears to share many commonalities across many cultures.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Moore
 |first1               = Robin C.
 |date                 = 6 December 2017
 |orig-date            = 1986
 |title                = Childhood's Domain: Play and Place in Child Development
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=sNNBDwAAQBAJ
 |series               =  Psychology Library Editions: Child Development, Volume 6
 |publisher            = Routledge
 |isbn                 = 9781351348652
 |access-date          = 30 May 2023
 |quote                = Street-play is a universal cultural phenomenon which will occur even if traffic levels are high and space differentiation is low.
}} 
</ref>
As a traditional phenomenon it has been closely investigated and documented in the [[western world]] during the 20th century by [[anthropologist]]s and [[folklore| folklorists]] such as [[Iona Opie]]; [[street photography |street photographers]] such as [[Roger Mayne]], [[Helen Levitt]], [[David Trainer]], [[Humphrey Spender]]<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/html/spender/images_gallery_children_01.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060430124026/http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/html/spender/images_gallery_children_01.html | archive-date=2006-04-30 | title=Spender's Worktown - Images - Children Page 1 }}</ref> and [[Robert Doisneau]]; urbanists such as [[Colin Ward]] and [[Robin C. Moore| Robin Moore]], as well as being described in countless novels of childhood. The research of Robin Moore stresses children's need for "marginal" unsupervised areas "within running distance" of homes (scrubby bushes and hedges, disused buildings).{{cn|date=May 2023}} Two academic journals emerged to discuss this area, the ''Journal of Children's Geographies'' and [https://museumsvictoria.com.au/collections-research/journals/play-and-folklore/ ''Play & Folklore''].

Children's street-culture has occasionally been central to feature films, such as the ''[[Our Gang]]'' ("Little Rascals") series (1922 onwards), [[Ealing Studios| Ealing]]'s [[Hue and Cry (film)| ''Hue and Cry'']] (1947) and some [[Children's Film Foundation]] productions such as ''Go Kart, Go!'' (1963) and ''The Soap Box Derby'' (1958).

The spread of distractions such as [[video games]], the [[Internet]], and [[television]] has raised concerns about the vitality or survival of children's street culture.<ref>{{cite web | author = Hanna Rosin | date = April 2014 |url= https://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/03/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/ |title=The Overprotected Kid |website= [[The Atlantic]] |quote=The child culture from my Queens days, with its own traditions and codas, its particular pleasures and distresses, is virtually extinct.}}</ref> The [[Effects of the car on societies |effects of the automobile]] on society have also been blamed for a decline in children's street-culture, due to safety concerns about children playing outside; between 1922 and 1933, over 12,000 children in [[England and Wales]] were killed in accidents involving motor vehicles.<ref>{{cite web |title= The history of play streets - London Play |url= https://www.londonplay.org.uk/content/29934/our_work/recent_work/play_streets/the_history_of_play_streets |website= www.londonplay.org.uk |language= en |access-date= 2020-01-05 |archive-date= 2021-04-15 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210415043657/https://www.londonplay.org.uk/content/29934/our_work/recent_work/play_streets/the_history_of_play_streets |url-status= dead }}</ref> The designating of [[play street]]s ("home zones") militates against such decline.

==Children's urban legends==

Many informal groups of small children will develop some level of superstitious beliefs about their local area. For instance, they may believe that there are certain places that are "unlucky" to step on (e.g.: certain large cracks in a sidewalk) or touch (e.g.: gateposts of a certain color) or pass beyond (such as the end of the [[sidewalk]], beyond which is another [[Parallel universe (fiction)|dimension]] inhabited by the [[bogeyman]]), or that an old woman is a "[[witch]]", or that an abandoned house is "haunted". But in some extreme circumstances, a consistent myth may emerge among young children, and across a large area. One example dates from 1997; the ''[[Miami New Times]]'' published Lynda Edwards' report "Myths Over Miami",<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.miaminewtimes.com/1997-06-05/news/myths-over-miami/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120416142814/https://www.miaminewtimes.com/1997-06-05/news/myths-over-miami/ |archive-date=2012-04-16|title=Myths Over Miami |author=Lynda Edwards |date=5 June 1997 |publisher=Miami New Times |access-date=6 April 2012}}</ref> which describes a huge consistent mythology spreading among young [[homeless]] children in the American South. The story has been picked up and reprinted many times on internet blogs and websites.<ref>Allie Conti, [http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/how-a-1997-new-times-feature-on-homeless-kids-folklore-exploded-the-internet-6551125 How a 1997 New Times Feature on Homeless Kids' Folklore Exploded the Internet.] ''New Times'', September 5, 2013.</ref> There is no known verification or confirmation that the mythology she describes actually exists,<ref>Ian Simmons, [https://www.magzter.com/article/Entertainment/Fortean-Times/Twenty-Years-of-Myths-Over-Miami Twenty Years of Myths Over Miami]. ''Fortean Times'', Christmas 2017.</ref> but these "secret stories" are clearly based on known elements of street culture, such as labeling certain places "haunted" or recycling legends of dangerous spirits such as [[Bloody Mary (folklore)|Bloody Mary]]. The article was the basis for [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s novel ''Mad Maudlin'', co-written with [[Rosemary Edghill]], and the reported childlore was also adapted as the basis of one of the myths in [[Ursula Vernon]]'s [[Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story or Comic#Winners_and_finalists|Hugo Award-winning]] webcomic [[Digger_(webcomic)|Digger]].

==See also==
{{col-list|colwidth=30em|
*[[Childlore]] 
*[[Child art]]
*[[Childhood secret club]]
*[[Children's geographies]]
*[[Effects of the car on societies]]
*[[Free-range parenting]]
*[[Home zone]]
*[[Latchkey kid]]
*[[List of traditional children's games]]
*[[Peter and Iona Opie]]
*[[Playground song]]
*[[Street game]]
*[[Tree house]]
*[[Truce term]]
*[[Play street]]
}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}
===Works cited===
* Ervin Beck. "Children's Guy Fawkes Customs in Sheffield", ''Folklore'', 95 (1984), 191-203. 
* David Sobel. ''Children's Special Places: Exploring the Role of Forts, Dens, and Bush Houses in Middle Childhood'' (2001).
*{{cite book |last1=Roud |first1=Steve |title=The Lore of the Playground: One hundred years of children's games, rhymes and traditions |date=31 October 2010 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4070-8932-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HY9I1e21AJcC |language=en}}

==Further reading==
{{Further reading cleanup|date=February 2016}}<!--"23 items is way too many-->

===Non-fiction===
* [[Simon Bronner]]. ''American Children's Folklore'' (1988).
* Robin C. Moore. ''Childhood's Domain: Play and Place'' (1986). (In-depth advanced study of three small areas of England, with maps and photos).
* [[Iona Opie]]. ''The People in the Playground'' (1993) (In-depth study of children's playground lore and life).
* Iona Opie. ''The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren'' (1959). 
* Steve Roud, ''The Lore of the Playground'', Random House (2010).{{ISBN|978-1-905211-51-7}}
* [[Robert Paul Smith]]. Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing. (1957) (Memoir focusing on children's pastimes, New York, 1920s)
* David Sobel. ''Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years'' (1998).
* Leea Virtanen. ''Children's Lore'' (1978). (English-translation of a 30,000-sample study from Finland).
* [[Colin Ward]] (with photos by Ann Golzen). ''The Child in the City'' (1977). (Groundbreaking key book, with a focus on the British experience).

The 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' entry for "Children's games" recommends: "the following works: [[A. B. Gomme]]'s ''Traditional Games of Great Britain'' (2 vols., Nutt, 1894-1898); Gomme's ''Children's Singing Games'' (Nutt, 1904); ... Newell's ''Games of American Children'' (Harper Bros., New York, 1884)."

===Photography books===
* [[Roger Mayne]]. ''Street Photographs of Roger Mayne'' (1996, [[Victoria and Albert Museum]]).
* [[Robert Doisneau]]. ''Les Enfants, Les Gosses'' (1992).
* [[Helen Levitt]]. ''In The Street: chalk drawings and messages, New York City 1938-1948''. (1987) &mdash; (Chalkings and children making them)
* Eddie Elliott (Curator). ''Knock Down Ginger: Seventy Years of Street Kids'' (Exhibition, Photographers' Gallery, London; July 2001).
* ''Les Enfants'' (Editions de La Martinière, France, 2001) (Anthology of French street photography of children; by Ronis, Riboud, Doisneau, Cartier Bresson, and others).
* R.S. Johnson & J.T. Oman. ''Street Children'' (1964). Hodder & Stoughton, London. (Photography & poetic text on facing pages, re: young British children's street play).

===Television documentaries===
* Ian Duncan. (Dir.) ''Picture This: Playing Out'' ([[BBC Two]] 1992) 
* Ian Duncan. (Dir.) ''The Secret World of Children'' ([[BBC]] 1993)
*''[http://ssa.nls.uk/film.cfm?fid=0799 The Singing Street]'' (1951).
* ''[[Dusting Bluebells (rhyme)|Dusty Bluebells]]'' (BBC Northern Ireland, early 1970s), and the follow-up film showing how the street's child-friendly nature had been destroyed by cars, ''This Is Not a Car Park'' (1993).
* [http://www.wfum.org/childrenplay/index.html ''Where do the Children Play?''] (NBC and University of Michigan, 2008)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Children's Street Culture}}
[[Category:Children's street culture| ]]
[[Category:Cultural geography]]