Childhood and spatial justice: Inter and intra-neighborhood inequalities in the appropriation of the city by children from Curitiba

Abstract

This study analyzes if there is inequality in the spatial experiences of children depending on where they
live in the city and neighborhoods. It is a quantitative research study in which we analyzed 1060
questionnaires answered by families from 27 local schools in Curitiba, distributed in the nine regional
coordinations at the time. The data were analyzed based on authors from sociology, urban sociology and
geography. We observed that children who lived in the central-northern region of Curitiba and in the central
regions of neighborhoods had more access to consolidated leisure and cultural places, because they either
lived near them or it was easier for them to go to these places (among other issues related to class, gender,
race, time at the current neighborhood, family geographical origin). It demonstrates both a “residency
effect”, responsible to generate opportunities, and spatial mobility that, as capital, pushed diverse
experiences in the city. For children who lived in the poor and in the outskirts of the neighborhood and,
further, lived in south or extreme south Curitiba (when inter and intra-neighborhood data are crossed), the
neighborhood did not present itself as a resource, but as a restriction, and spatial mobility seemed to be a
scarce urban capital. The configuration was one of non-social mixture among children who lived in different
parts of neighborhoods and the city. The city proved to be spatially unfair and the neighborhood presented
itself as a model, teaching superior positions and status to some children and subalternity and sedentariness
to others.