GROWING-UP IN AMSTERDAM - DIFFERENTIATION AND SEGREGATION IN CHILDRENS DAILY LIVES

So far, children have not gained much attention in the field of segreg ation studies. In the research reported here, the notion of segregatio n is related children's daily life paths in the public domain. Given t he local dimension of children's everyday lives and the growing number of 'black' and 'white' schools, it is apparent that children deserve a higher place on the agenda of segregation studies. Drawing on resear ch carried out in five different Amsterdam neighbourhoods, this paper addresses children's time-space behaviour-after-school time. The centr al question is whether differentiation and segregation form vital dime nsions in Amsterdam childhoods. Special attention has been given to ch ildren's orientation towards the public domain, their membership of le isure clubs and their freedom of movement. Results show that differenc es among children growing up in Amsterdam are big. At first sight, the re seems to be a sharp divide between Amsterdam children with Dutch pa rents and Amsterdam children with a Turkish/Moroccan or Surinamese/Ant illean background. However, incorporating gender and class into the an alyses, the picture becomes less clear. Ethnicity is a far more comple x and dynamic concept than is sometimes argued. However, on the geogra phical scale of the neighbourhood, we must conclude that in three out of the five studied areas the contours of segregated childhoods are ev idently clear. The material presented in this paper is based on observ ational studies and interviews in public playgrounds and a survey with 454 schoolchildren (7-12 years of age) and 214 parents.