YOUNG PEOPLE AND CITIES: PUBLIC OPEN SPACE AND

SOCIAL INCLUSION

The research centre for inclusive access to outdoor environments

The Research Question Are teenagers a socially excluded group

with regard to public open space in Edinburgh?

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SUBQUESTIONS: •Where do teenagers go?•When do they go out?•How far?•What do they do?•Whom do they go out with?•What are the things they like about these places?•What are the things they dislike about these places?•Do they feel safe in these places?•What would their ideal place be like?

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METHODOLOGY• Focus Groups: Interviews with high school students from two age groups (12 - 14 and 15 - 17 year olds)

• In situ participant observation of teenage activities in the places they frequent in the city centre

• Youthscope Survey 2001 by Edinburgh City Council

STATE OF THE PROJECT

• 9 focus groups with 97 students from four high schools in Edinburgh

• 15 informal interviews with teenagers in two places in the city centre

Focus GroupsTeenagers’ Favourite Places

GIRLS: • Princes Street• Starbucks Cafe• Fountain Park (new cinema complex with pizzas, bowling etc) • Cameron Toll (shopping mall)• Princes Street

Gardens

BOYS: • Princes Street.• McDonalds• car park behind the Sheraton Hotel and

streets for skateboarding

• tennis courts (for football)

• golf courses, • artificial ski slope

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Focus GroupsTeenagers’ Activities in Their Favourite Places

GIRLS:• socialising and

meeting friends• shopping• going to cinema• sitting in Princes

Street Gardens with friends

• walking in Pentland Hills (near Balerno)

BOYS:• socialising and

meeting friends• shopping• going to McDonalds• doing sports• skateboarding• playing football • going to clubs for

under 16

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Focus GroupsDescription of Favourite Places

Pros:• accessibility (good

transport)• variety of different

amenities (shops, restaurants, cafes, cinemas)

• modern, fun and comfortable places

• safe places

Cons:• presence of gangs

and drug users• presence of other

teenage groups (i.e. ‘goths’, ‘neds’)

• crowded streets• few places to

skateboard without getting kicked off

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Focus GroupsOutdoor Places

Pros:• Relax • socialise• do sports• enjoy the greenery

and fresh air

Cons:• boring places(not

much to do)• dangerous places

(The Meadows)• weather restriction

(rain and cold)

General Observation: A high percentage of participants - mostly 15-17 year olds - in the case study showed lack of interest for outdoor green spaces.

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Question: Do you go to any parks and other outdoor green places in Edinburgh?

Girl: If the weather is nice, yes, I would go and sit in apark otherwise, I would stay at home or go shopping…andthe weather usually is not good for that.

Boy: When you get older you want to go out more often,socialising and going out to drink, going to pubs and clubs andstuff. When I was younger I was just happy playing football inthe local park but now I want more.

Boy: I used to go to parks a lot when I was at the primaryschool but now I go to Princes Street and Fountain Park.

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Question: Do you go to any parks and other outdoor green places in Edinburgh?

Girl: Why would I want to knock about there? There’snothing there! You just walk through a park. I find parksboring.

Girl: If it was my choice there’d be no trees or bushes or nothing like that ‘cause I just don’t like them.

Boy: There’re very few parks that you actually think ‘ohlet’s go there’.Girl: There’s not an outside place that you could say ‘let’smeet there’, there’re always inside.

Boy: There’s nothing appealing about going to a park.Boy: I’ve never met anyone in Princes Street Gardens.

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Focus GroupsDangerous Places

• Old Town (dark alleys and narrow closes)• Cockburn Street (‘hang out’ place for goths)• Bristo Square (‘hang out’ place for

skateboarders)• Wester Hailes (‘hang out’ place for rival

gangs)• The Meadows and Fountain Park (after dark)• Lothian Road (drunk people)• Leith Walk (gay bars and clubs)

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Focus Groups

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Dangerous PlacesBoy: “I skateboard at Bristo Square”PT: “Do you find it safe for you to go there?”Boy: “No, if you go alone but usually I go with a big group of

friends. I try not to go, just me and like one other friend, because there are people, like dealing drugs and things in the corners and it's not very safe”

Focus GroupsSafest Place

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“Princes Street –an open place, plenty of people, lots of adults and shop-keepers if you feel scared, you go and stand near the shop security guy.” (15 year old girl)

Focus Groups

Ideal Place

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• Street with grass for sitting, playing football• More coffee bars, shops (clothes), food • Skatepark• More activity and sports, including extreme

sports • Basketball, football, ice-rink, bowling, cinema,

swimming pool near centre of town• Teen sports centre where 12-yr-olds can go,

with outdoor and indoor activities• Easy to get to – good, frequent bus routes

Focus Groups Edinburgh Ideal Places

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Girl(14 yrs): “It would be nice if they build a skate park and then a Costa café where we could sit and watch them skating”

Focus GroupsSuggestions to Planners & City Council

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Girl: “To create more places where teenagers could go. You see there’s really nothing for teenagers apart from these nights which are so boring ‘cause most of the people there are too young.”

Girl: “What’s missing from the city are places specifically made for us not some thing that is trying to be kiddie and then end up patronising everybody because all these places try to be for us but made by adults and that’s make them look stupid.”

Focus GroupsFinal Observations

• ‘Outdoor’ places: any place beyond and away from home • Where they live is boring• Younger teenagers (12/14 years) more concerned about

safety • Older teenagers (15/17 years) more concerned about

lack of facilities• Physical characteristics of outdoor/indoor places less

important than possibility of being with friends • Use of outdoors varies with weather, night-day and

seasonal changes (i.e. cold-warm)• Older teenagers (particularly from Wester Hailes) do NOT

find green urban areas attractive.

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FURTHER RESEARCH•Interviews with 6 more high schools

•Interviews with youth club members

•Interviews with skateboarders and planners responsible for design of The Meadows Skatepark

•Interviews with young people from ethnic minority groups and disadvantaged environments

•In situ participant observation

•Using visual research methods (video and photography)

MAP OF AREAS USED IN THE CASE STUDY

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MAP 1: BRISTO SQUARE SKATERS’ MOVEMENT

MAP 7: EAST PRINCES STREET GARDENS - WEEKDAY

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