Care for Children and Freedom from Adults: An Analysis of the Play Park Movement as a Social Laboratory of Child-Adult Relationships

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationships between “adults” and “children” in the Play Park movement in Setagaya (the pioneering adventure playground movement in Japan) and to describe the freedom of children from the sociological viewpoint. In modern society, the image of “children” is related to that of the “adults” who care for them. Nevertheless, there are many statements that insist on allowing the children's free will distancing from adults'. Studies that begin with such statements end up finding that the statements themselves are mere reflections of the asymmetrical relationships between children and adults. Thus, they again insist on the “real” freedom of children. However, the Play Parks, -whose motto is “Play freely on your own responsibility” -have succeeded in neutralizing the asymmetry and realizing the freedom of children by following certain mechanisms. First, they develop an original logic regarding children's play and then allow children to take care of themselves. Second, adults can also share this logic, which liberates them from the inconvenience of taking care of children. Since it is adults who support the provision of space for children to be free, this may be a kind of utopia. However, modern fiction still considers “adults” as social agencies and never abandons the realm where “adults” should give special consideration to “children.” If we are unable to ignore the fiction, we can learn some implications from the Play Parks. Although they are limited places, the asymmetry between “children” and “adults” is being neutralized inside these Play Parks and both “children” and “adults” can act freely.