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Remembering vacant lots: Residents’ use of informal urban greenspace as children and teenagers in Japan and Australia

Authors:
Christoph D D Rupprecht at Ehime University
Christoph D D Rupprecht
Jason Antony Byrne at University of Tasmania
Jason Antony Byrne
Alex Lo at York St John University
Alex Lo
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Remembering vacant lots: !
Residents’ use of informal urban greenspace as
children and teenagers in Japan and Australia
Christoph Rupprecht
Jason Byrne
Environmental Futures Research Institute
Griffith University
Alex Lo
The Kadoorie Institute
University of Hong Kong
“When I was a child,
there were lots of vacant lots
and it was normal for kids to play there.
Today most of them are hard to get into.”
Hiroko, 52, female, from Sapporo
What can informal urban greenspace look like?
Street verge Gap
Railway Brownfield
Waterside
Lots
Structural Microsite Powerline
Why use informal greenspace to play?
Play in parks is limited: strict rules, few
animals & plants, prescribed activities.
Young people use informal greenspace to
avoid rules & find chances to
•  Play ball, hide and seek, explore
•  Modify the environment "
(e.g., build huts, tree houses)
•  Escape parental oversight "
(seek privacy)
No ball play!
IGS as ‘unclaimed territory’, space of becoming-other
Cloke & Jones (2005):
Childhood as fundamentally
‘other’ to adulthood:
‘disordered spaces’/IGS offer
territory to be different,
be a child
Children’s real
experience
Adult constructions of childhood
?  Innocence ?  Nature
Colin Ward (1978) The Child in the City
Photo removed for copyright reasons:
It shows a child kicking chairs that
burn on the lawn between 1960’s style
rental apartment blocks.
How to study past experiences? Working with memories
Memory as methodology: "
important points (Philo 2003, Treacher 2000)
•  Memories: window into the past
•  Adult imaginations mix with
memories of childhood
•  Nostalgia: everything was better
in the past… or was it?
•  Researchers’ own experience
and memories of childhood
•  Researchers’ point of view: adults
looking at childhood (perception)
Research questions
1.  IGS use, frequency and activities?
2.  Reasons for using IGS and not a park or garden?
3.  Problems experienced when using IGS?
4.  Differences between genders?
5.  Differences between culture/geography context?
Two cities: case study locations
Location
Brisbane Sapporo
Founded 1824, city status 1902 1868, city status 1922
Population
1,07 mil. (2010) ! 1,3 mil. (2031) 1,9 mil. (2011) " 1,8 mil. (2030)
Pop. density 770/km
2
(peak >5,000/km
2
) 1,700/km
2
(peak >8,000/km
2
)
Park space 32m
2
per person 12m
2
per person
Study methods & sample characteristics
121 sites per city on 10x10km grid
Resident IGS questionnaire
•  IGS use as child or teenager
•  Reasons for IGS use
•  Problems with IGS use
•  Open comments
Sample
•  N=99/163 (Brisbane/Sapporo)
•  Median age 51/58
•  Ages 19-84 (B), 21-90 (S)
•  Women 59% (B), 53% (S)
Results: Remembered use of IGS in childhood
Percent of child/teen IGS users
0%
20%
40%
Every
day
Every
week
Every
month
A few
times per
year
Never
% of IGS users
0%
20%
40%
Every day Every
week
Every
month
A few
times per
year
Never
% of IGS users
IGS use as child
higher in Sapporo
IGS use as teenager"
higher in Brisbane
85%
72%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Brisbane Sapporo
% of respondents
Results: Remembered activities in IGS
•  Playing games
•  Exploration
•  Walks
•  Observing plants and animals
•  Secret hiding place from adults
•  Other (contemplation,
photography, swimming, taking
short cuts, relaxing, solitude)
Reasons for preferring IGS over parks or gardens
Brisbane Sapporo
It's near my home
76%
81%
It's wild and exciting
54%
31%
It's not crowded
43%
13%
There are more or different animals or plants
21%
17%
It has better privacy (nobody watching)
39%
11%
There are no use restrictions (e.g. no ball play)
35%
31%
It can be used for many things (e.g. gardening)
12%
4%
There are no nice parks near my home
13%
31%
I don't have a garden or similar greenspace
5%
8%
Other
11%
6%
Remembering problems experienced when using IGS
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Childhood Teen age
% of IGS users
Brisbane Sapporo
Users who experienced
no problems
Main remembered problems:
•  Danger of injury (10-15%)
•  Lots of litter (3-9%)
•  Parents forbid use (0-6%)
•  Hard to access (2-5%)
Analysis: Gender differences in IGS use
Almost no differences between genders, except:
In Sapporo,
Teenage male IGS users more likely to
•  Use IGS for playing games (OR: 3.1)
•  Observe animals & plants (OR: 4.6)
•  Experience no problems (OR: 2.8)
•  Use IGS because it had more or
different animals & plants (OR: 3.8)
Female IGS users
•  Visited IGS less frequently
as teenagers (r=-.25)
•  IGS played a recreational role for respondents of both genders
•  Contrast to previous literature reporting larger differences
“Finding bugs, playing in grass as high as the kids themselves –
what a great experience for children! It certainly was for me. I
found bugs that just weren’t there in parks.”
Keiko, 39, female, from Sapporo
City differences: stronger decline in Sapporo IGS use
Child/teen
IGS users
52%
21%
Brisbane Sapporo
Adult IGS use
0%
20%
40%
Every
day
Every
week
Every
month
A few
times
per
year
Never
Use frequency as children
0%
20%
40%
Every
day
Every
week
Every
month
A few
times
per
year
Never
Use frequency as teenagers
Adult IGS perception
65%
17%
12%
47%
5%
8%
19%
27%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Brisbane Sapporo
Better Both Worse Neutral
Analysis: Reasons for declining IGS use?
“Today, there’s no place for young
teenagers to go other than hanging
out in front of convenience stores.”
Akiko, 39, female, from Sapporo
School, parents, peers...
Childhood /
Disorder
Adulthood /
Order
Socialization
Seeking new space
to construct identities
New territory,
e.g. internet
IGS as
unclaimed territory
“I have grown up
and don't use it any more.”
Robert, 68, male, from Brisbane
IGS play: safety vs. adults’ convenience
Hayashi 1999
•  No evidence that IGS is more dangerous today
•  “Culture of threatened litigation” (Cloke & Jones 2005) ➜
•  Parental safety concerns vs. freedom to roam & play
In IGS-related child literature, (Mugford, 2012)
the ‘parent’ constitutes a barrier to children’s
access to challenging places & experiences
Conclusions
1.  Most respondents used IGS as children & teenagers
2.  Most IGS users experienced no problems
3.  IGS use declined from childhood to adulthood
4.  Safety concerns may limit children’s IGS access today
References
Cloke, Paul, and Owain Jones. 2005. “‘Unclaimed Territory’: Childhood and Disordered
Space(s).” Social & Cultural Geography 6 (3): 311–33.
Mugford, Katy. 2012. “Nature, Nurture; Danger, Adventure; Junkyard, Paradise; The Role of
Wildscapes in Children's Literature.” In Urban Wildscapes, edited by Anna
Jorgensen and Richard Keenan, 80–96. Abingdon: Routledge.
Philo, Chris. 2003. “‘To Go Back Up the Side Hill’: Memories, Imaginations and Reveries of
Childhood.” Children's Geographies 1 (1): 7–23.
Rupprecht, Christoph D D, Jason A Byrne, Hirofumi Ueda, and Alex Y H Lo. Forthcoming. “‘It’s
Real, Not Fake like a Park’: Residents’ Perception and Use of Informal Urban Green-
Space in Brisbane, Australia and Sapporo, Japan.” Landscape and Urban Planning.
Rupprecht, C. D. D., Byrne, J. A., & Lo, A. Y. H. (2015). Memories of vacant lots: How and why
residents used informal urban greenspace as children and teenagers in Brisbane,
Australia and Sapporo, Japan. Children’s Geographies.
http://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2015.1048427
Rupprecht, C. D. D., & Byrne, J. (2014). Informal urban green-space: comparison of quantity
and characteristics in Brisbane, Australia and Sapporo, Japan. PLoS ONE, 9(6),
e99784. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099784
Treacher, Amal. 2000. “Children: Memories, Fantasies and Narratives: From Dilemma to
Complexity.” In Memory and Methodology, edited by S Radstone, 133–53. New York:
Berg Publishers.
Ward, Colin. 1978. The Child in the City. New York: Pantheon Books.
Thank you for listening!
Questions?
Many thanks to:
Yumi Nakagawa, Kumiko Nakagawa, Hirofumi
Ueda, Brisbane Council, Sapporo City, all
survey respondents
Blog: www.treepolis.org
Twitter: @focx
Google+: Christoph Rupprecht
This presentation is freely available @ !
ResearchGate, Slideshare, Academia.edu!
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
'It's real, not fake like a park': Residents' perception and use of informal urban green-space in Brisbane, Australia and Sapporo, Japan
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Memories of vacant lots: How and why residents used informal urban greenspace as children and teenagers in Brisbane, Australia and Sapporo, Japan
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'Unclaimed territory': Childhood and disordered space(s)
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To Go Back up the Side Hill': Memories, Imaginations and Reveries of Childhood
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