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The Business of Children's Play: Spaces of Empowerment? Of Control? Of Social Exclusion?
Researchers: Professor Michael G Bradford, Anna V Fielder, School of Geography, University of Manchester
Dr John H McKendrick, Department of Social Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University
Contact: Dr John McKendrick
Department of Social Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, City Campus, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow G4 0BA
Tel. 0141-331-3256, Fax. 0141-331-3439, Email j.mckendrick@gcal.ac.uk
Duration of Research: November 1996 - October 1998
Background Information
In recent years, private sector provision of young children's leisure space has grown rapidly. Recent developments include restaurants adding-on children's play areas (e.g. Whitbread's Brewer's Fayre, Allied Domeq's Wacky Warehouse), retail outlets creating play zones within their stores (e.g. Kid's HQ at Lewis's), the growth of unipurpose indoor adventure playgrounds (e.g. Alphabet Zoo), the opening of theme parks specifically for young children (e.g. Gulliver's parks) and the establishment of Family Leisure Centres with designated children's play areas (e.g. First Leisure). The scale and context of provision for children has been transformed. These developments have also altered the geography of childhood and children's spaces. Thus, spaces for children are being created in the central cores of urban areas and other previously 'adult' domains. The business of children's play is becoming an integral part of central business districts throughout urban Britain and beyond as motorway service stations and theme parks in the countryside attend to the perceived leisure needs of young children.
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Study Design
Little is known about access to private play facilities, how children and families use them, what children think about them and the impact they have on neighbourhood play development. A carefully balanced and inter-linked research design involving questionnaires (stage 1), interviews (stage 2), field observation (stage 3) and family video recordings (stage 4) are being employed. By August 1997, 872 questionnaire surveys had been conducted, coded and analysed (preliminary). Interviews with senior managerial staff had also been conducted and interviews with day-to-day operational staff in these play centres were underway. In-depth interviews (20) with a sample of families who had completed the survey questionnaires were due to commence in September 1997, from which a smaller sample (5) will work with the researchers in detailed case study analyses of family day outs. The research becomes increasingly detailed and in-depth as it progresses and canvasses the opinions and experiences of children, parents, service providers and those who deliver services to children and their families.
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Policy And Academic Implications
The project will inform the development of children's play services by complementing and enhancing the work of marketing professionals in the private sector. The research will provide an overview of children's use of this specific sector of the leisure market and will give voice to children's opinions in the process. Detailed reports for participating organisations have been prepared based on the questionnaire surveys, from which more general research findings of interest to leisure management professionals will be forthcoming. The orientation of private sector leisure development toward children raises key questions with respect to children's role as clients and consumers of services, social exclusion and leisure norms and the environments which society deems fit for children; the academic implications of the work are as significant as the practical policy outcomes. An electronic mailing list is being maintained to disseminate project information and a project newsletter will be launched in the Autumn of 1997.