Spatial avoidance or spatial confidence? Young people's agency in the active negotiation of risk and safety in public space

This article explores teenage girls' and boys' agency in how they handle risk and promote safety in public space. Based on material from qualitative interviews with Swedish teenagers (from age 16), a small-scale survey and written accounts, it is shown that teenagers actively negotiate risk and promote safety in public space. Drawing on Panelli, Kraack, and Little [2005. “Claiming Space and Community: Rural Women's Strategies for Living with, and Beyond, Fear.” Geoforum 36 (4): 495–508] multidimensional model of situated agency, it is discussed how teenagers choose to draw on, or contest, different dimensions of agency in constructing and handling risk and safety.