Negotiating space in the risky community

This paper aims to explore how young people who participated in a three year action research project experience and understand space, place and risk within their own locality. Within the accounts presented, risk is often depicted as an organising principle of daily experiences and differing dispositions towards risk come to dictate use of space and place. This is often experienced differently according to gender. The paper will present some accounts given by young men in
order to demonstrate the importance of locality in their lives and how this is often subjectively experienced, based upon calculations concerning risk, danger and safety. It will be argued that an understanding of the subjective nature in which
young people, in particular young men, come to negotiate access to space and identification with places is crucial for decision-makers and those working directly with young people who might otherwise seek to impose their own definitions and
understandings upon them. The relevance of this for youth work practice will be discussed. It will be argued that detached youth work is a potential policy solution to addressing the importance of space and place in young people's lives.