Children’s space in a city undergoing densification : A study of open space per child on preschools in the urban locality of Umeå

This study aims to describe and analyze changes over time in the degree of relative crowding in preschools within the urban area of a medium-sized city in the northern part of Sweden – and does so by examining the size of the available open space per child. Further, this work explores the spatial variation of open space dimensioning in relation to the urban center in order to decide whether shrinking of children’s open space should be considered to be limited to the major metropolitan areas of Sweden. With the basis in an assumption of increasing competition over land as a consequence of neoliberal governance and densification as strategies to promote urban growth, it’s hypothesized from recent literature that these ambitions increasingly risk confining children’s right to adequate areas of open space for outdoor play. Using a combination of quantitative approaches of analysis, with the use of regression analysis the study concluded that the coefficient of the independent variable Building age is positive, and therefore matches the expected direction. However, no statistically significant linear relationship was observed even with the use of relevant variables – highlighting a complex relationship surrounding the understanding and prediction of land use in general and urban open space in particular. A comparison of mean values using grouping based on both the aspect of time and centrality found that preschools built after 1998 generally contains 0,85 m2 larger open space per child than those built before 1987, whereas preschools within the urban center had 6,18 m2 larger open space per child than those located in more peripheral locations. When controlling for the share of preschools that undercuts and exceeds the recommendations related to dimensioning of open space communicated by the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, units within the city center was found to meet these recommendations to a greater extent. Preschools built after 1998 seem to be more prevalent among units that undercuts the said recommendations. The results call for further research within this field of study in order to determine whether or not children’s shrinking open space can be limited to be a phenomenon encompassing solely major metropolitan areas.