Contested Worlds: Constraints and Opportunities in City and Suburban Environments in an English Midlands City

Young people’s views of Semilong, a working-class district of Northampton (United Kingdom), are compared with their peers’ views of life in nearby Hunsbury, a recently developed suburb on the edge of the city. Despite the differences between these two environments, the experiences that each group relates raise many similar questions about what it means to be a young person in contemporary England, society’s attitudes toward the young, and the quality of the environments in which children grow up. Sources of conflict between young and old over the use of community space are explored, and ways to reduce conflicts by bringing young people into local decision-making processes are suggested.