The Lack of Playful Opportunities in the City: Who decides where children can play?
In cities like Cairo, play is increasingly formalised and compartmentalised into designated spaces across different socioeconomic settings. From public and community playgrounds to sports clubs, cafés and malls, children are often provided with specific places to play; spaces that can offer safety, supervision and a sense of control, particularly in a dense and rapidly growing city.
But what happens when these become the mainstream and expected places for children to play?
When play becomes tied to particular destinations, access can depend on where you live, how you get there, when you can go, how much time you have, and what you can afford. Thus, the lack of diverse, accessible and equitable opportunities for play woven into everyday urban life should be also meticulously questioned.
Children continue to appropriate, negotiate and transform the city around them; playing in streets, sidewalks, vacant spaces, neighbourhood corners, school routes and other places never designed as playgrounds.
But these opportunities are not equally available either. Gender, age, safety concerns, social norms, and the location and quality of spaces can all shape who gets to play, where, when and for how long.
These photographs are a small collection of observations from Cairo, showing some of the spaces designated for children’s play and other examples of how children nevertheless find, appropriate and create opportunities for play beyond them.
What does this look like in your city?
Have you encountered similar challenges, or found ways to create more diverse and inclusive opportunities for children to play in everyday urban life?
We would especially love to hear from colleagues across different parts of the world with various densities, climates, social norms…etc. Share your stories, experiences, photographs and observations with us.
What can we learn from the ways children find and make space for play in your city?
- By Merham M. Keleg