I AM HERE! Partizipative approaches to analyse the space behavior of adolescents in the city

It is not possible to be nowhere. But where are we? Why are we there? How do we access these places? How do we organize and form them? And which meanings do they have for us? The public space in a city is limited and overlapped by competing claims among interest. To young people this space offers the possibilities to escape from parental and academic control. They meet like-minded people and friends, just hang out or use them as container and plattform for signs and symbols of their cultural affiliation. Beside this, public space helps adolescents for the integration to an adult society. Within this project, we collect and analyze the spatial activities of young people in Vienna to deduce proposals and concepts for a city development and open space planning that is suitable for younger persons. As tools for the data collection we use GPS devices, mobiles as well as digital photo- and videocameras and audio recording devices. For data processing and visualization web-mapping and virtual globe technologies like GoogleMaps, GoogleEarth or OpenStreetMap are used. Following the principles of transdiciplinary research, the participating pupils are integrated in the project work from the beginning. This means, that they don´t learn only about actual research methods from the field of social geography and geoinformation, but also get involved in the development and design of methods (web programming, questionaire design, etc.). The hereby developed tools are also used for artistic forms of expression (GPS Art, GPS Drawing). The results are then presented and discussed by the pupils within a workshop of the Municipal Department 18 (urban development and planning) together with representatives of the Viennese administration.