Autonomy In Public Spaces

The ethnography in “With No Direction Home” by Marni Finkelstein was quite astounding. The group Finkelstein studied were street kids no older than the age of 20. Finkelstein did not interview kids over 20 because he said kids under the age of 21 rely on their families for social and financial support. He studied kids under 20 because those groups are most vulnerable to the lack of familial support and wanted to determine whether it will affect their self behaviour. These interviews and observations were constructed in the East Village of New York. The kids interviewed were from all over the place like New Jersey, Northeastern states, Southwest, Midwest, Southwest..etc. This study took place in the year 2005. Finkelstein tried to answer

For centuries, teenagers have fought with their parents over the amount of freedom they should have. Parents always fight to reel in their child’s freedom, while teens argue that they need more privileges. While parents certainly have an argument in protecting their kids from the big, scary world, ultimately teenagers need to be exposed to the dangers of everyday life in order to prepare them for entering it on their own. If they have no real-life experience, they cannot be expected to handle it well when they leave their parents’ houses. In order to teach kids responsibility and life skills, kids should be allowed freedom to work and be out on their own, but have certain restrictions on a case-to-case basis in terms of curfews and household obligations.

The book “With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets” written by Marni Finkelstein refers to the homeless youth. This book describes the lifestyle of the teenagers with no home and explains with detail about what consist in their everyday lives in the streets of New York City. The purpose of this book is to explain to people who these kids are and to see life in their point of view. It explains the difference between street kids and the kids that live on the street. We need to understand that the kids that live on the streets have their own culture and their own way of surviving. Learning their point of view would be a great eye opening experience for everyone and to also understand their struggle. This book explains a study that was done to 50 street kids and life on the streets.

From the time they are little, youths are being trained for adulthood whether they realize it or not. They must get used to the ways of the world if they are to survive in it. Perhaps the most tragic is the attempt to escape. Eady describes the children as fighting what is expected of them by “reach[ing] in self-defense” for a way to express themselves(27). They try to hide behind the wigs, lipstick, and sequins of a life they can only dream of.

Alex Kotlowitz’s There Are No Children Here is a documentary exploring life in inner-city Chicago during the late 1980’s. The book follows the lives of two African American youth, Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, who live in Chicago’s Horner Homes over the course of two years. It tells of a lifestyle that is a reality for many Americans and forces the reader to acknowledge a broken system that so many turn a blind eye toward. Kotlowitz does not sugarcoat the struggles and hardships that the citizens of the inner-city face every single day. The Rivers’ boys, like all the children of inner-cities, experience situations and know of unimaginable horrors that rob them of their innocence and childhoods. Lafeyette and Pharoah have to face and overcome many forces that can change their lives for the worst, such as: gangs and drugs, the social system, the Chicago Housing Authority, and the battle within them to give into the worst of society. Sociological concepts, including: racism, strain theory, and social stratification can explain some of the exploitation of Lafeyette and Pharoah.

On last Wednesday I was able to attend one of the “Choreographing Histories, Presents, and Futures” series presentations. Imani Kai Johnson one of the assistant professors of critical dance studies presented her research on hip-hop dance cyphers. She introduced her research topic to us as the “Double-Consciousness in the Global Cypher”. Johnson opened up the series by sharing one of her chapters from her new book that is currently in progress. In the chapter she explained her experience she had traveling to Germany. While she was in Germany she happen to run into a cypher of hip-hop dancers performing for one another. The energy of the cypher intrigued her so much that she felt drawn to this urban type of street dance. She noticed the energy

Paul Watt and Kevin Stenson, The Street: It’s a bit dodgy around there’ safety, danger, ethnicity and young people’s uses of public spaces, chapter 15 in Geographies of youth, youth cultures: Cool places The aim of this chapter is to question young people’s feelings and experiences when moving around a town in the South East of England. The town, named Thamestown by the authors. The area in which Thamestown is location, is described as a predominantly white, wealthy middle class area of the south east of England. Between June 1994 and July 1995 Watt, Stenson and other researchers investigated, how an ethnically mixed group of young people use public spaces in terms of danger and safety. Several key points arise in this chapter. Racial segregation

Men and women alike are often afraid to venture out into the streets at the dark hours of the day. It could be argued that this is a byproduct of the ever-increasing US crime rate, yet it may also be due to the natural fear that accompanies walking alone in public spaces, familiar or not. Although any shifty figures lurking on the sidewalk can be the source of this fear, it is no doubt that the gross misrepresentation of black people as perpetrators of violent crimes has given them “the ability to alter public space in ugly ways,” as so proficiently stated in “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples (205). Through this short essay, Staples uses a variety of rhetorical devices, namely anecdotes, in order to present the fact that these preconceived racial notions can make certain individuals increasingly susceptible to societal scrutiny. This forces many individuals to make concentrated efforts to present themselves as less threatening because “where fear and weapons meet -- [as] they often do in urban America -- there is always the possibility of death” (206).

Since public space is a contested domain, devices may be placed to exclude the inappropriate users of that particular area (Malone 2002, 160-161). The inappropriateness of users may vary from one space to another. One example of this mechanism is the use of ‘hostile architecture’; the term used to describe the structures installed in public places to deter its use in certain ways or by certain groups of people (Petty 2016, 68). For example, in the cities of Australia, anti-skating devices such as little knobs on steps, garden beds and rails are implemented (Timms 2015), to exclude the space’s undesired users such as skateboarders. The skateboarding culture is closely associated with young adults, in particular the male demographic (Nemeth 2006, 309; Slee 2011, 1-2); hence through the measure of ‘hostile architecture’, young people’s use of public space may be subjected to disproportionate deterrence and

In the essay “ Learning Responsibility on City Sidewalks”, the author Jane Jacobs shows us that it is important to let children interact with city sidewalks because they can learn lots of things there. On the other hand, the author also argues that it is necessary to select appropriate public areas because not all the public areas can give children advantage lessons. Based on author’s observations, some parents will allow their children play in parks so they are convenient to take care of children and save money for hiring daycare. However, it is not useful for children to learn in this environment. For example, children will not learn independent under parent’s supervision. Combing all the factors,

"With No Direction home" by Marni Finkelstein is an ethnography that was conducted for a period of two summers in the east village of New York City. The group that was targeted was homeless youth. The author's goals in this research is to find out how these kids end up in the streets and what they go through once they are there. Marnie Finkelstein interviewed 50 subjects to get a deeper understanding of how these kids see the world once they are on the street. She wants to shed some light on the lifestyle, experiences, goals, backgrounds and more on this largely understudied population. She also approaches the street kids with cultural relativism, putting aside her own thoughts and beliefs to get a better understanding of their culture and way of life.

This image of children carelessly playing unsupervised provides the reader with a false sense of safe secure well-being. Even when the men do begin to gather, the reader finds them engaged in small talk such as “planting and rain, tractors, and taxes”(251); all, everyday topics one would expect being discussed at such a peaceful community event.

In Brent Staples’ personal essay “Black Men and Public Space”, he tells the readers what happen to a young black man in an urban setting. He pinpointed that people often stereotype you because of color, race, gender, culture or appearance. In addition, the author expresses to us that he notices the space between him and other people, such as women on the street. Some people may disagree that women set a certain amount of space when walking by a black man on the street. This statement is not true and public space is not about race, gender, color, culture, or appearance.

She explores the three primary uses of sidewalks: safety, contact, and assimilating children. Street safety is promoted by pavements clearly marking a public/private separation, and by spontaneous protection with the eyes of both pedestrians and those watching the continual flow of pedestrians from buildings. To make this eye protection effective at enhancing safety, there should be “an unconscious assumption of general street support” when necessary, or an element of “trust”. As the main contact venue, pavements contribute to building trust among neighbors over time. The use of sidewalks and it discipline is very similar to the way the military is ran its purpose for war and peace keeping in Utopia. Utopians were very much against war and tried to avoid it as much as they possibly could. Their purpose for engaging in war is only to protect themselves, friends, or oppressed people. Utopians view war as stupid, shameful and they grieved after war. Utopians would rather use cunning to win wars than brute strength. They consider strength to be a trait belonging to all animals, while only humans are intelligent. Therefore, manly victories come through intelligent maneuverings rather than direct attacks. When a declaration of war is made, the

The discourses surrounding homeless youth were an important factor contributing to the implementation of the SSA. For instance, Parnaby (2003) suggests that the legislative response was made possible because of the way “squeegee kids” in Toronto were constructed in the media and public discourse. Through examining newspaper articles in three publications in Toronto, Parnaby (2003) notes there was an increase in print media which constructed squeegeeing as a sign of urban decay. Notably, there were three themes which stood out: the increased size of the social problem, the unruly appearance and demeanor of the youth, and the public’s fear of crime (Parnaby, 2003). Furthermore, Glasbeek (2006) examined how fear of crime intersected with gender and safety in the rhetoric against squeegee kids. Gendered conceptions of safety contributed to the perception of the “squeegee kids problem”. What this means is that, there was discourse in the media of “dangerous” squeegee kids “intimidating” “helpless” women (Glasbeek, 2006; Parnaby, 2003). Parnaby (2003) and Glasbeek (2006) highlight debates in the Ontario parliament, which draw on these gendered