How Do Adults Realize Children's Freedom in Modern Settings?: A Case Study of the Japanese Adventure Playground Movement

  “Children are social actors.” “Children have agency.” These slogans are easy on the ear. However, in reality, children live in modern settings that presuppose asymmetrical relationships between adults and children such as school education and child protection systems. Sociologists of childhood should not stop analyses at the point of finding children’s agency. Instead, we have to tackle questions, such as how they enjoy agency and how we are able to let them have it in this structure.

  This paper will show one case study of the Adventure Playground movement in Japan, analyzing documents and interviews with participants.

  The movement originated in Europe and appeared in Tokyo in the 1970s. The park is a paradoxical place in which adults offer children “free” and even adventurous play, which had been missing from urban life. In the course of its development, the members of the movement had to cope with claims that the place was dangerous and dirty. They appropriated modern notions such as “responsibility” and “risk,” and contrived a challenging motto to the existing views on children: “Be Responsible and Play Freely”

  It is true that this space is being preserved by adults with elaborate strategies. It is none other than adults who cope with matters of laws, economics and politics, especially related to safety issues, which children cannot solve due to the (lack of) responsibility given to them in the modern social systems. However, by doing so, the space is being suspended from the modern conception of the adult/child dichotomy and has become a free space not only for children but also for adults.

  My paper will show the way the movement realizes this utopia, intentionally or unintentionally. This will serve to show the contemporary constellation of concepts related to childhood and a practical way to dislocate the existing system.