A STUDY OF YOUNG PEOPLES' SPACES IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This study focuses on socio-spatial aspects of young people in Singapore using their interactions in three physical spaces: home, school and the public spaces. It explores young peoples' sense of place and of territoriality as they attempt to carve for themselves spaces to carry out their own activities. This study shows that young people are often dependent on the interpersonal relationships they experience within the given settings which may affect their sense of place and territoriality. Often, tensions and conflicts built up between themselves and adults causing them to assert their autonomy in spaces which are traditionally produced as adults' spaces. This study shows that although young people are often regarded as subordinate to adults, in terms of their age and access to material resources, they are active agents and not entirely passive recipients in their use of spaces. It has been noted that they are capable of adopting a repertoire of spatial strategies in the colonisation of spaces. They usually covert in their contestation of space and may even become non-confrontational. However, their increasing visibility in the public spaces has led to a series of regulatory strategies employed by adults as a form of social control.