Place, children's friendships, and the formation of gender identities in a Slovak urban neighbourhood

The paper explores how children form their peer relationships in a small urban neighbourhood in Bratislava, and how their gender identities are affected by practices of friendship. Drawing on Horschelmann and Stenning's (2008, Progress in Human Geography, 32, 339) idea of the 'ethnographic attitude' to researching 'post-socialist' change, the paper identifies links between children's everyday performances and broader structures in which these are embedded. Special attention is given to the spatial ranges of children's practices, developing an argument about the significance of children's neighbourhood as a pivotal spatial domain for the constitution of children's friendships.