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ABSTRACT
This article aims to demonstrate the significant role children play in new suburban communities, and in particular, the extent to which their circuits of sociability contribute to social cohesion in the suburbs. The discussion is located within the field of sociology of childhood, which argues that children are active agents who help to create and sustain social bonds within their neighborhoods. Drawing on focus group discussions and short essays by children on "The place where I live," we paint a picture of how suburban life is interpreted and experienced from a child's perspective. We argue that children develop a particular suburban sensibility that structures their view of their estate, the wider neighborhood, and the metropolitan core. Although children express considerable degrees of satisfaction with suburban life, they are critical of the forces that increasingly limit their access to suburban public space.
KEYWORDS
anti-urban ideology, children, neighborhood, public space, sociability
I live in a housing estate ... There are five other estates in that area. All the houses are semi-detached. My friends' houses are only down the road from me. There are four green areas for playing on. I have lived in that estate for nearly thirteen years now. There is a shop, a Fiat garage, a driving centre and the cinema is only a fifteen minutes walk from me. You would find dogs, cats and hedgehogs. (School child, Mullingar)
It is only relatively recently that children's voices have come to be heard within mainstream sociology. Traditional views of the socialization process reinforced the notion that children, in the context of their families and personal communities, play a passive role. Newer literature within the field of sociology of childhood has challenged passive conceptualizations of the child and argued for an interpretive reproduction approach. Such an approach holds that "children are not formed by natural and social forces but rather ... they inhabit a world of meaning created by themselves and through their interactions with adults" (James, Jenks, and Prout et al. 1998: 28). Or as Corsaro puts it: "Children are active, creative social agents who produce their own unique children's cultures while simultaneously contributing to the production of adult societies" (2005: 3). The traditional linear developmental model of childhood emphasizes stages of socialization and...