Children's street culture

Children's street culture refers the cumulative culture of rhymes, songs, jokes, taboos, games, and places (e.g.: places "known" to be "haunted" or "a den" or "forbidden"), etc. among young children. Collectively, this body of knowledge is passed down from one generation of urban children to the next, and can also be passed between different groups of children (e.g. in the form of crazes, such as making guys for Bonfire Night — see Beck 1984). It is often strongest in urban working class industrial districts, where children are traditionally free to "play out" in the streets for long periods without supervision.

Resources

Non-fiction

• Iona Opie. The People in the Playground (1993).
• Iona Opie. The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959).
• Simon Bronner. American Children's Folklore (1988).
• Colin Ward (with photos by Ann Golzen). The Child in the City (1977).
• Robin Moore. Childhood's Domain: Play and Place (1986).
• Ervin Beck. "Children's Guy Fawkes Customs in Sheffield", Folklore, 95 (1984), 191-203.

Photography books

• Roger Mayne. Street Photographs of Roger Mayne (1996, Victoria and Albert Museum).
• Robert Doisneau. Les Enfants, Les Gosses (1992).
• Helen Levitt. In The Street: chalk drawings and messages, New York City 1938-1948. (1987) — chalkings and children making them.
• Eddie Elliott (Curator). Knock Down Ginger: Seventy Years of Street Kids (Exhibition, Photographers' Gallery, London; July 2001).
• Les Enfants (Editions de La Martinière, France, 2001) (Anthology of French street photography of children; by Ronis, Riboud, Doisneau, Cartier Bresson, and others).

Television documentaries

• Ian Duncan. (Dir.) Picture This: Playing Out (BBC2 1992)
• Ian Duncan. (Dir.) The Secret World of Children (BBC 1993)

See also

• David Sobel. Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years (1998).