Cookies

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Otherwise, we'll assume you're OK to continue.

Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing

Wolfson Fellow

Publication details for Professor Rachel Pain

Pain, R., Grundy, S., Gill, S., Towner, E., Sparks G. & Hughes, K. (2005). 'So long as I take my mobile': Mobile phones, urban life and geographies of young people's safety. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 29(4): 814-830.

Author(s) from Durham

Abstract

Mobile phone ownership has spread rapidly among young people in the UK. This article contributes to an expanding body of literature which is examining the consequences of this phenomenon for urban life. Our focus is the impact of mobile phones on young people's geographies, particularly their own and their parents' fears about their safety in public spaces. Quantitative and qualitative findings are presented from two research projects in Gateshead, north-east England on crime victimization and leisure injury risk for young people, in which the role of mobile phones in managing and negotiating safety emerged as significant. The article highlights the different ways in which young people and parents are using mobile phones for this purpose, and asks whether they are best viewed as technologies of surveillance or empowerment. We also raise questions about the efficacy of mobile phones in protecting young people from risk and fear, in particular examining the mobile as a new site of victimization. Throughout, we emphasize the social unevenness of the uses and impacts of new technologies, which is often underplayed in research. We conclude with the suggestion that although they offer some empowerment to young people in their use of public spaces and their negotiation of risk, mobile phones appear to be reshaping rather than reducing moral panics about young people's presence there.

References

Aitken, S.C. (2001) Geographies of young
people: the morally contested spaces of
identity. Routledge, London.
Anderson, S., R. Kinsey, I. Loader and
C. Smith (1994) Cautionary tales: young
people, crime and policing in Edinburgh.
Avebury, Aldershot.
Brown, S. (1995) Crime and safety in whose
‘community’? Age, everyday life, and
problems for youth policy. Youth and Policy
48, 27–48.
Brown, B., N. Green and R. Harper (eds.)
(2002) Wireless world: social, cultural and
interactional issues in mobile technologies.
Springer, London.
Campbell Keegan Ltd (2001) Child road
safety: focus on 14–15 year olds. Report to
DETR and presented at Adolescent Road
Safety Seminar, 22 March 2001.
Charlton, T., C. Panting and A. Hannan (2002)
Mobile telephone ownership and useage
amongst 10- and 11-year-olds: participation
and exclusion. Emotional and Behavioural
Difficulties 7.3, 152–63.
Collins, D.C. and R. Kearns (2001) Under
curfew and under siege? Legal geographies
of young people. Geoforum 32, 389–
403.
Cooper, G. (2002) The mutable mobile: social
theory in the wireless world. In B. Brown,
N. Green and R. Harper (eds.), Wireless
world: social, cultural and interactional
issues in mobile technologies, Springer,
London.
——, N. Green, R. Harper and G. Murtagh
(2004) The mobile society: technology and
social action. Berg, London.
Curry, M.R. (1998) Digital places. Routledge,
London.
Davis, A. and L. Jones (1996) Environmental
constraints on health: listening to children’s
views. Health Education Journal 55,
363–74.
Furedi, F. (2001) Paranoid parenting: abandon
your anxieties and be a good parent.
Penguin, London.
Goodey, J. (1994) Fear of crime: what can
children tell us? International Review of
Victimology 3, 195–210.
Graham, S. (ed.) (2004) The cybercities reader.
Routledge, London.
Green, N. (2002a) On the move: technology,
mobility, and the mediation of social time
and space. The Information Society 18.4,
281–92.
—— (2002b) Who’s watching whom?
Monitoring and accountability in mobile
relations. In B. Brown, N. Green and
R. Harper (eds.), Wireless world: social,
cultural and interactional issues in mobile
technologies, Springer, London.
—— (2003) Outwardly mobile: young people
and mobile technologies. In J. Katz (ed.),
Machines that become us: the social context
of personal communication technology,
Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick,
NJ.
Harrington, V. and P. Mayhew (2001) Mobile
phone theft. Home Office Research Study
235, Research Development and Statistics
Directorate, Home Office, London.
Hillman, M., J. Adams and J. Whitelegg (1990)
One false move: a study of children’s
independent mobility. Policy Studies
Institute, London.
Holloway, S. and G. Valentine (2003)
Cyberkids: children in the information age.
RoutledgeFarmer, London.
Holmes, D. (2001) Virtual globalization:
virtual spaces/tourist spaces. Routledge,
London.
Holroyd, R.A. (2003) Fields of experience:
young people’s constructions of embodied
identities. Unpublished PhD Thesis,
Loughborough University.
Hutchby, I. and J. Moran-Ellis (2001)
Children, technology and culture.
Routledge, London.
Jones, O., M. Williams and C. Fleuriot (2003)
‘A new sense of place?’ The implications of
mobile wearable ICT devices for the
geographies of urban childhood. Children’s
Geographies 1.2, 165–80.
Kasesniemi, E. and P. Rautiainen (2002)
Mobile cultures of children and teenagers in
Finland. In J.E. Katz and M. Aakhus (eds.),
Perpetual contact: mobile communication,
private talk, public performance,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Katz, J. (ed.) (2003) Machines that become us:
the social context of personal
communication technology. Transaction
Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ.
—— and M. Aakhus (eds.) (2002) Perpetual
contact: mobile communication, private
talk, public performance. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge.
—— and P. Aspden (1999) Mobile
communications: theories, data, and
potential impact. In J.E. Katz (ed.),
Connections: social and cultural studies of
the telephone in American life, Transaction
Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ.
Kendall, P. (2001) A mobile generation: huge
majority have their own phone, survey
reveals. Daily Mail 29 June, 7.
Kopomaa, T. (2000) The city in your pocket:
birth of the mobile information society.
Gaudeamus, Helsinki.
Koskela, H. (2004) Webcams, TV shows and
mobile phones: empowering exhibitionism.
Surveillance and Society 2.2/3, 199–215.
Ling, R. (2000) ‘We will be reached’: the use
of mobile telephony among Norwegian
youth. Information Technology and People
13.2, 102–20.
—— and B. Yttri (2002) Hyper-coordination
via mobile phones in Norway. In J.E. Katz
and M. Aakhus (eds.), Perpetual contact:
mobile communication, private talk, public
performance, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
—— and B. Yttri (2003) Kontroll, frigjoring og
status: mobiltelefon og maktforhold i
familier og ungdomsgrupper. In
F. Engelstad and G. Odegard (eds.), Pa
terskelen: makt, mening og motstand blant
unge, Gyldendal Akademisk, Oslo.
Livingston, S. and M. Bovill (1999) Young
people, new media: summary of report of
the research project ‘Children, young
people and the changing media
environment’. London School of
Economics and Political Science.
Loader, I., E. Girling and R. Sparks (1998)
Narratives of decline: youth, dis/order and
community in an English ‘Middletown’.
British Journal of Criminology 38.3,
388–403.
MacIntrye, A. (2000) Inner-city kids:
adolescents confront life and violence in an
urban community. New York University
Press, New York.
Maguire S. (2003) Shaping childhood risk in
post-conflict rural Northern Ireland: ‘mind
the traffic and watch out for the bad boys’.
Unpublished paper.
Matheson, J. and P. Babb (2002) Social trends
32. The Stationery Office, London.
Matthews, H., M. Limb and B. Percy-Smith
(1998) Changing worlds: the microgeographies
of young teenagers. Tijdschrift
voor Economische en Sociale Geografie
89.2, 193–202.
——, M. Limb and M. Taylor (2000) The
‘street as thirdspace’. In S.L. Holloway and
G. Valentine (eds.), Children’s geographies:
playing, living, learning, Routledge,
London.
McKendrick, J.H. (1997) Regulating children’s
street life: a case study of everyday politics
in the neighbourhood. SPA Working Paper
39, School of Geography, University of
Manchester.
Namaste, K. (1996) Genderbashing: sexuality,
gender, and the regulation of public space.
Environment and Planning D 14, 221–40.
NCH (2002) 1 in 4 children are the victims of
‘on-line bullying’ [WWW document]. URL
http://www.nch.org.uk/news/news3.asp?
ReleaseID 125 [accessed 13 February
2003].
O’Connell, R. (2003) From fixed to mobile
internet: the morphing of paedophile
activity on the internet. Report to the Home
Office.
Office of National Statistics (2002) Social
focus in brief: children 2002 [WWW
document]. URL http://
www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/
theme_social/social_focus_in_brief/
children/Social_Focus_in_Brief_
Children_2002.pdf [accessed 13
November 2002].
Oksman, V. and J. Turtianinen (2004) Mobile
communication as a social stage: meanings
of mobile communication in everyday life
amongst teenagers in Finland. New Media
and Society 6.3, 319–39.
Pain, R. (2003) Youth, age and the
representation of fear. Capital and Class 80,
137–57.
—— (forthcoming) Paranoid parenting?
Rematerializing risk and fear for children.
Social and Cultural Geography.
—— and T. Townshend (2002) A safer city
centre for all? Meanings of ‘community
safety’ in Newcastle upon Tyne. Geoforum
33, 105–19.
Percy-Smith, B. and H. Matthews (2001)
Tyrannical spaces: young people, bullying
and urban neighbourhoods. Local
Environment 6.1, 49–63.
Rice, R.E. and J.E. Katz (2002) Comparing
internet and mobile phone digital divides.
Proceedings of the 65th ASIST Annual
Meeting, vol. 39.
Roberts, H., S.J. Smith and C. Bryce (1995)
Children at risk? Safety as a social value.
Open University Press, Buckingham.
Scott, S., S. Jackson and K. Backet-Milburn
(1998) Swings and roundabouts: risk
anxiety and the everyday worlds of children.
Sociology 32.4, 689–705.
Simmons, J. (2002) Crime in England and
Wales 2001/2. Research Development and
Statistics Directorate, Home Office,
London.
Skelton, T. (2000) ‘Nothing to do, nowhere to
go?’: teenage girls and ‘public’ space in the
Rhondda Valleys, South Wales. In S.L.
Holloway and G. Valentine (eds.),
Children’s geographies: playing, living,
learning, Routledge, London.
Skog, B. (2002) Mobiles and the Norwegian
teen: identity, gender and class. In J.E. Katz
and M. Aakhus (eds.), Perpetual contact:
mobile communication, private talk, public
performance, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
Summerfield, S. and P. Babb (2003) Social
trends 33. The Stationery Office, London.
Tucker, F. and H. Matthews (2001) ‘They don’t
like girls hanging around there’: conflicts
over recreational space in rural
Northamptonshire. Area 33.2, 161–8.
Uhlig, R. (2001) Children ignore mobile
phone dangers. The Daily Telegraph 29
June, 8.
Valentine, G. (1993) Negotiating and managing
multiple sexual identities: lesbian time–
space strategies. Transactions of the
Institute of British Geographers 18.2,
237–48.
—— (1996) Angels and devils: moral
landscapes of childhood. Environment and
Planning D: Society and Space 14, 581–99.
—— (1997) ‘Oh yes you can’ ‘oh no you can’t:
children and parents’ understanding of kids’
competence to negotiate public space
safely. Urban Geography 17.3, 205–20.
—— and S. Holloway (2001) On-line dangers?
Geographies of parents’ fears for children’s
safety in cyberspace. Professional
Geographer 53.1, 71–83.
—— and J. McKendrick (1997) Children’s
outdoor play: exploring parental concerns
about children’s safety and the changing
nature of childhood. Geoforum 28.2,
219–35.
Waiton, S. (2001) Scared of the kids? Curfews,
crime and the regulation of young people.
Sheffield Hallam University Press,
Sheffield.
Weale, S. (2002) Would you microchip your
child? The Guardian 4 September.
Wearing, S. and C. Foley (2002) The mobile
phone, a fashion accessory or security
blanket: conspicuous consumption, identity
and adolescent women’s leisure choices.
Paper presented at the International
Sociological Association, World Congress
Sociology, ‘The Social World in the Twenty
First Century: Legacies and Rising
Challenges’, Brisbane, Australia,
7–13 July.