Reconquering Urban Spots and Spaces?

Children's publicness ( Kinderöffentlichkeit) develops and occurs in local urban areas. It is obviously threatened today by the lower density of the child population, the institutionalization of childhood and changes in the urban landscape. That does not mean that it is disappearing. Rather, it is undergoing a substantial change. `Scripts' created by the media and involving intensive consumption influence when, where and how children's publicness actually occurs. In dealing with these `scripts', children develop new forms of temporary publicness. Of considerable importance are attempts to develop a new way of integrating medial, sensual-active, body-, space-and group-related actions. The article reconstructs these interrelationships from a cultural analysis perspective. The analysis itself is based on many years of empirical research.