Children's Geographies

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Children's access to play during the COVID-19

pandemic in the urban context in Turkey

Bengi Sullu

To cite this article: Bengi Sullu (2023): Children's access to play during the COVID-19 pandemic
in the urban context in Turkey, Children's Geographies, DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2023.2195046

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Published online: 01 Apr 2023.

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CHILDREN’S GEOGRAPHIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2023.2195046

Children’s access to play during the COVID-19 pandemic in the

urban context in Turkey
Bengi Sullu
The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

In this opinion paper, I trace children’s access to play in the urban context Received 9 February 2022
against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the news, Accepted 20 March 2023
civil society organizations’ reports and conversations with experts
KEYWORDS
working in Istanbul, Turkey during the last year, I show how children’s children’s access to play;
access to public places in the city gets constrained by urban children’s well-being; COVID-
governance that neglects young people’s needs. Examples from the 19 ; Istanbul; urban planning
neighborhoods of Istanbul, Turkey, indicate the importance of having in and governance
mind the whole community while thinking about bringing play
opportunities in public spaces and at the same time raise questions
about children’s participation in these processes.

… Allowing children to play according to their needs (and in contrast to what is permitted by a city suited only
to the needs of adults) guarantees healthier, more serene and productive adults. In other words, play is indeed
a key feature in urban policies. (Tonucci 2005)

With the global outbreak of COVID-19, individuals and organizations voiced concerns about chil-
dren’s well-being when governmental measures to prevent transmission seemed to follow an
aggressive lead towards children and young people, aiming to keep them off public places
(Weale 2020). As young people need to access public places in the city to play, relax and build social
relationships (Sepe 2021), providing young people with such opportunities was especially important
to mitigate the physical and mental health challenges brought by the pandemic (Chanchlani, Bucha-
nan, and Gill 2020; Szczepańska and Pietrzyka 2021). Across the globe, however, what has been
observed was young people’s obstructed access to public spaces. From the Global North, Mitra
et al. (2020) pointed to the declining walking, biking and outdoor play hours of Canadian children
who lived in the higher density neighborhoods that are nearby major roads; Joelsson and Ladru
(2022) delved into the ‘immobility’ imposed upon the young people of the poor neighborhoods
that came with the loss of public institutions, such as the youth recreation centers in Sweden.
From the Global South, looking at Indonesia, Kusumaningrum, Siagian, and Beazley (2022)
drew attention to the way the restrictions and physical distancing measures removed children
from poor communities from the open and safe public spaces in which they could socialize and
work.
In this opinion paper, I look at the measures applied by the Turkish government in response
to the pandemic as these relate to children’s well-being and at some of the responses to these
measures from agents concerned about children’s well-being, with a focus on implications for
children’s access to play in public spaces during 2020–2021. I hope that the overview of the
Turkish context, both on the measures of the government and how different agencies tried
to address the gap it leaves in the concern for young people, will contribute to a deeper

CONTACT Bengi Sullu bsullu@gradcenter.cuny.edu

© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 B. SULLU

understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on young people, especially those who rely exten-
sively on public places.
In April 2020, among the precautions against the COVID-19 outbreak, the Turkish government
has instituted a curfew for people under 20 and over 65, allowing them to go out only within the desig-
nated three hours during the day (Hurriyet newspaper, 2020). The curfew was lifted for a couple of
months but reinstated in November 2020 for evening hours, and then by regular national weekend
curfews to include everyone, excluding purposeful, short visits for shopping only for those between
20 and 65. In May 2021, a government announcement of the most recent lockdown included that
the managements of gated communities or compounds should warn children and young people
who are outside to go back to their homes once the lockdowns started (Milliyet newspaper, 2021).
Meanwhile, since the pandemic began in Turkey in March 2020, public outdoor spaces like parks
and beaches in Istanbul, the largest city of Turkey, have been closed to the public for longer periods
while private shopping malls, on the other hand, quickly re-opened and remained thus, to the dismay
of health specialists, who warned that the virus transmits much more easily indoors (Omaklilar 2020).
As education transitioned to an online format and remained inaccessible to many households that
could not afford digital devices and/or internet service (see Demiral 2020 for an informative discus-
sion), the impact of the pandemic on children became more devastating due to their disconnection
from day-care centers and schools. Children experienced spatial confinement, boredom, increased
domestic responsibility, loss of independence, invasion of privacy, increased exposure to domestic
violence and isolation from peers despite the central psycho-social need of young people to connect
to peers and to belong to a peer group (Kanbur and Akgül 2020).
In the most acute days of the public health crisis, the central government in Turkey treated the
needs of the young people as a nuisance that could be eliminated during the pandemic. Regulations
intended as precautions perpetuated a process of othering of young people: as in 2020, young people
were verbally harassed or had to face police who fined their parents for their not complying with the
curfew, a procedure that is found to be lacking a legal basis by human rights organizations (IHD
Covid Tedbirleri, 2020). In 2021, as many news stories drew attention to the high number of infec-
tions among young people and framed the young people as the spreaders, while the infection dis-
eases experts, on the other hand, emphasized that the isolation of young people coupled with not
vaccinating young people accounted for the high infection rate (Duvar newspaper, 2021). These
processes highlighted a structural mechanism of age-based discrimination identified by scholars
in other contexts (Adami and Dineen 2021; Wall 2022), which contribute to the reproduction of
the limitations that children from the socio-economically disadvantaged neighborhoods experi-
enced in their access to parks, playgrounds and public spaces in Turkey.
Research dating back to the period before the pandemic indicates children’s limited access to
public spaces in Turkey (Tandogan and Ergun 2013; Ataol et al. 2022a). It has been documented
how real estate sector-driven urban development and redevelopment in Istanbul, the largest city
in Turkey and the country’s financial and commercial growth center (Severcan 2018), proceeds
via prioritization of the central government’s financial interest in an increasingly authoritarian
manner over the public interest (Severcan 2012; Tansel 2019). There is an unequal redistribution
of the burden tied to redevelopment processes undertaken in such manner that predominantly
falls on the neighborhoods that have lower socioeconomic development, as in the form of limiting
of already narrower green spaces and playgrounds that are falling short of safety standards (Dogru
et al. 2019). In Istanbul, the experience of access to public spaces for children can deteriorate in line
with urban redevelopment as shown by Severcan’s (2018) research which compares children’s use
and experiences of public spaces in more redeveloped vs. less redeveloped lower-income neighbor-
hoods in Istanbul. Severcan (2018) finds that:
The replacement of public spaces with highly controlled, regulated and consumer-oriented places draws the
children into a private sphere, limiting opportunities to be physically active, engage with the community, dis-
cover their identities, develop their social and problem-solving skills and play freely. (2018, p. 2192)
 CHILDREN’S GEOGRAPHIES 3

Access to play was jeopardized in high-density low-income neighborhoods during

the pandemic
To understand better what happened during the pandemic on the ground, I interviewed a member
of Sulukule Volunteers Association (SVA), a neighborhood organization operating in the low-
income Karagümrük neighborhood (district of Fatih) in Istanbul. I asked about their impressions
regarding access to play during COVID-19 in the urban context. Here is a summary of the impor-
tant points from the interview1:

. Karagümrük is one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in terms of children’s outdoor

access to play even before the pandemic due to the insufficiency of car-free, natural, and
empty places in which children can play.
. The pandemic had a devastating effect on children’s access to play firstly due to impeded access
to streets and secondly due to school closures. Like in many low-income neighborhoods, streets
operate as an extension of the house for children in Karagümrük and the school playgrounds are
the most essential play spaces used by children.
. In the absence of nearby public spaces that are regarded by the caregivers as safe and secure, and/
or going to these places entails crossing traffic, children are not permitted to go out. In some
instances, children can leave if only accompanied by a caregiver. In spatially constrained neigh-
borhoods like Karagümrük, this means that children are further spatially constrained in their
play, having to share the already limited space with adults (during the times they are allowed
to go out).
. Urban planning and policy processes center on parks and school playgrounds when focusing on
play, which leads to design practice that excludes children from broader spaces within the city
that they can, and often prefer to, engage with (i.e. streets and empty lots in the neighborhood).
. Urban planning and governance in Turkey follow predominantly non-participatory structure,
which leaves children out of the design and governance processes regarding the places designed
for them.

Elaboration on the participatory potentials of a local play implementation

My second interview was with the previous coordinator of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s
(IBB) Child Policies Unit from 2020, who works right now at Education Reform Initiative (ERG)
in Istanbul.2 Her points on urban planning and governance in Istanbul echoed those of the former
interviewee:
Urban planning and governance in Istanbul is not based on offer a participatory culture. The systems in place
usually allow residents to participate in a survey about determining trivial issues (i.e. the color of the buses) but
vital issues like decision-making processes about the places one inhabits remain limited.

She then embarked on an example that signaled this culture might be changing. Istanbul Metropo-
litan Municipality’s (IBB) Child Protection and Coordination Unit has been established under the
municipal government of the opposition party in Turkey that came to power in June 2019. In July
2020, under the leadership of this unit, IBB’s Department of Social Services collaborated with The
Department of Parks, Gardens and Green Areas and launched a pop-up neighborhood playground
project named ‘Hop’ (which means instantenous in Turkish) ) as a part of the Istanbul95 program
of Bernard van Leer Foundation.3 Under the coordination among these municipal agencies, Hop
pop-up playgrounds were implemented in Avcılar and Ümraniye districts’ neighborhoods which
were chosen as pilot sites due to their deprivation of play spaces.
Hop playground is based on the Pop-up Adventure Playground model introduced by the non-
profit Pop-up Adventure Playground. Originating in the US and the UK, with a team that trains
interested parties internationally, Pop-up Adventure Playground provided training for the Hop-
4 B. SULLU

participating agencies in IBB in principles and provision of adventure playgrounds. Adventure

playgrounds provide instantaneous and flexible play space and material consisting of moveable,
loose parts tools (fabric, cardboard materials, wood, string, recycled materials, etc.) and encourage
the incorporation of natural elements (soil, water, plants, etc.) and facilitation of child-led play.4
Hop implementation aimed to contribute to improvement of access to play within the urban
context of Istanbul by taking into account the ‘ … the parameters of children’s access to play
that are delineated in line with the access of the accompanying family members to the play spaces’
(interview notes , 2021). Besides incorporating contextually adaptative alternatives to the construct
of an adventure playground, for example the utilization of hygiene-oriented materials such as water
and soap as the ‘loose parts’, it also spoke to the concerns and precautions of families and further
enhanced the ‘mobility permits’ of children (Joelsson 2019). Furthermore, the implementation also
cultivated and supported the understanding that play dynamically emanates within a social and
environmental context instead of being inscribed in the physical infrastructure by emphasizing
‘programming and trained personnel’ (interview notes, 2021). In a city like Istanbul, which is
home to playgrounds that are often rated by parents as unfavorable due to proximity to heavy
traffic (Sullu 2018; Caymaz and Sirel 2021), the idea of a pop-up playground proves effective to sup-
port outdoor play despite imminent physical infrastructural challenges.
Municipal mechanisms for children’s participation in the creation of spaces in which they play
and spend time in have been evaluated as insufficient despite the existing efforts to support chil-
dren’s well-being by municipal agents (Ataol et al. 2022b). A comprehensive analysis by Ataol
et al. (2022b) of visions and statements of children’s participation in planning documents in Istan-
bul and Turkey finds that even though the current strategic plan emphasizes ‘ … the inclusion of
city residents in existing processes and the establishment of new mechanisms that will enable citizen
participation in making decisions regarding municipal services (IMM 2020, p.11) [it] … does not
define a mechanism for enabling children’s participation’ (2022b, 11). A Play Master Plan has
been put together and made available to the public in late 2021, prepared by the Istanbul Metropo-
litan Municipality’s Parks, Gardens and Green Areas Department (with the contribution of multiple
local government agencies as well as international organizations, research-based architecture firms
and academic institutions) presents the first municipal-level diagnostic evaluation of ‘the city’s
recreation infrastructure and analysis of play and recreation uses in the public spaces’
(Istanbul Play Master Plan 2021, 135) with children’s participation implicated within only one
item in the action agenda named ‘developing child-friendly participation methods’ (177), yet to
arrive.
Given this background, questions regarding Hop implementations are: Were children at the cen-
ter of the processes that led to creation of the activities and design of places in this specific neighbor-
hood contexts? What did children think of and feel about the play activities and spaces? These
questions necessitate attention given the roots of the Hop implementation in the Western notion
of ‘child-led’ play, implicating an interpretation and enactment of agency (Abebe 2019) that
might be radically different than the one playing out in the neighborhoods of Istanbul with regards
to how socialization with different play and household materials, attitudes towards adult/family
presence, use of space and many more are structurally shaped. In the light of the same questions
about children’s place in the design and implementation, it is not difficult to realize the absence
of children’s experiences from the media coverage of the implementations, despite the abundance
of of visuals records. This brings to mind the relegation of children’s presence to what Hart’(1992)
names ‘decoration’ in the ladder of participation , which falls under non-participation.5
Hop playground implementation is a step towards an urban policy that paves a path for discus-
sion and materialization of participatory practices that emphasize young people’s well-being in the
city. During the pandemic, the implementation proved difficult to sustain as the city space became a
battleground for the tensions among different levels of governance. The implementations planned
for Fall 2020 were canceled several times by the governor of Istanbul under the protest and public
activity ban. This indicates that not only the improvements around ‘good practice’ examples in line
 CHILDREN’S GEOGRAPHIES 5

with participatory principles will be required, but challenges will need to be overcome by the urban
politics that attempts to envision and implement solutions intended for people to ‘breathe’ (borrow-
ing from a parent’s response to how the Hop implementation felt for her): the challenge presented
by the national government’s prioritization of an intensified order and control over a holistic com-
munity health approach.

Notes
1. Related report by the organization is listed under the references (Koca et al. 2020) and can be accessed from
the organization’s website http://www.sulukulegonulluleri.org/tr-tr/.
2. Translated to English by the author based on the interview notes from the online interview conducted in June
2021.
3. Project is developed and supported by architecture practice Superpool and Istanbul Gönüllüleri organization.
4. An integral part of play in adventure playgrounds is facilitation by ‘playworkers’, who are responsible for
establishing the play environment in which children can engage in self-directed and freely chosen play
alone or with others and respond to children’s needs during play, but who also interfere minimally in the
play unless children are not safe.
5. For images and the text: https://bianet.org/bianet/toplum/227868-hop-kuruldu-hop-kalkti-cocuklar-icin-
seyyar-oyun-parki; https://www.milliyet.com.tr/gundem/seyyar-oyun-parklari-ayaginiza-geliyor-6373965.

Acknowledgements
I want to thank my interviewees for their time and my advisor Professor Roger Hart for his guidance.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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