Children’s engagement in urban issues: Foreign experience analysis (European and Australian case studies)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33910/2687-0223-2020-2-3-141-151

Keywords:

children, city, urban planning and development, urban processes, children’s engagement, children’s interests

Abstract

Due to rapid urbanization, the city has become a common environment for most modern children. It is in urban interactions that children accumulate the necessary social experience and practise their social skills including decision-making and expressing their opinion.

Foreign researchers record increasing attention of the professional community including architects, urbanists, and designers, to the involvement of children in the processes of urban planning and development. Most often, such attention is determined by the need to ensure road safety and create open spaces for children and adolescents to play and socialize. However, the fact remains, that the urban environment for children is usually designed by adults without children’s involvement. Such exclusion, on the one hand, makes it difficult to create favourable conditions for child development in an urban environment, and, on the other, prevents children from exercising their identity through engagement in urban processes, and from developing a sense of ownership of the urban community.

The article analyses the practices of including children in urban planning and development processes on the cases of cities in three European countries (Great Britain, Sweden, and the Netherlands) and in Australia. Urban development plans rarely include children as a target group, although some cities are making efforts to create conditions for the inclusion of children’s views in urban planning and improvement.

The article also outlines the main issues in considering children’s views in urban planning: stigmatization of individual urban areas, a lack of educational activities, the personal factor i. e. different degrees of importance assigned to taking children’s opinions into account, and differences in the level of municipal authorities’ awareness and their equipment with technologies required for involving children in urban processes.

References

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REFERENCES

Barnard, J. (1980) Children in the built environment: Guidelines for planning and Design. Melbourne: Georgian House, 63 p. (In English)

Berglund, U., Nordin, K. (2007) Using GIS to make young people’s voices heard in urban planning. Built Environment, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 469–481. DOI: 10.2148/benv.33.4.469 (In English)

Birch, J., Parnell, R., Patsarika, M., Šorn, M. (2017) Participating together: Dialogic space for children and architects in the design process. Children’s Geographies, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 224–236. DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2016.1238039 (In English)

Cele, S., van der Burgt, D. (2015) Participation, consultation, confusion: Professionals’ understandings of children’s participation in physical planning. Children’s Geographies, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 14–29. DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2013.827873 (In English)

Fielding, M. (2001) Students as radical agents of change. Journal of Educational Change, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 123–141. DOI: 10.1023/A:1017949213447 (In English)

Filipova, A. G., Abrosimova, E. E., Bukhtiyarova, I. N. (2020) Uchastie detej v reshenii semejnykh voprosov: analiz materialov roditel’skikh forumov [Participation of children in solving family issues: Analysis of materials of parent forums]. Sotsiologiya — Sociology, no. 3, pp. 222–233. (In Russian)

Filipova, A. G., Skrypnikova, E. M. (2019) Osobennosti uchastiya detej v reshenii voprosov, zatragivayushchikh ikh interesy: po materialam ekspertnykh interv’yu [Features of children’s participation in issues affecting them: Based on expert interviews]. Sotsial’naya pedagogika, no. 4, pp. 89–96. (In Russian)

Gilbert, R., O’Brien, C. (2010) Child- and youth-friendly land-use and transport planning guidelines for Nova Scotia. Canada: The Centre for Sustainable Transportation. University of Winnipeg, 88 p. [Online]. Available at: https:// www.nsfm.ca/members-only-content/1168-child-and-youth-friendly-planning-guidelines/file.html (accessed 22.07.2020). (In English)

Hart, J., Newman, J., Ackermann, L., Feeny, T. (2004). Children changing their world: Understanding and evaluating children’s participation in development. London: Plan Publ., 65 p. (In English)

Hinton, R., Tisdall, K. M., Gallagher, M., Elsley, S. (2008) Children’s and young people’s participation in public decision-making. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 281–284. DOI: 10.1163/157181808X311132 (In English)

Horton, J., Hadfield-Hill, S., Kraftl, P. (2015) Children living with “sustainable” urban architectures. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 903–921. DOI: 10.1068/a140401p (In English)

Karsten, L. (2010) A view from the Netherlands: The status of children in local government spatial planning. Early Childhood Matters, no. 114, pp. 33–36. (In English)

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Landry, C., Bianchini, F. (1995) The creative city. London: Demos, 60 p. (In English)

Percy-Smith, B. (2010) Councils, consultations and community: Rethinking the spaces for children and young people’s participation. Children’s Geographies, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 107–122. DOI: 10.1080/14733281003691368 (In English)

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Simpson, B. (1997) Towards the participation of children and young people in urban planning and design. Urban Studies, vol. 34, no. 5-6, pp. 907–925. DOI: 10.1080/0042098975880 (In English)

Strathclyde Regional Council. (1991) Strathclyde Structure Plan. Glasgow: Strathclyde Department of Physical Planning. (In English)

Thomas, N. (2007) Towards a theory of children’s participation. International Journal of Children’s Rights, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 199–218. DOI: 10.1163/092755607X206489 (In English)

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van der Burgt, D. (2008) How children place themselves and others in local space. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, vol. 90, no. 3, pp. 257–269. (In English)

Published

2020-12-28

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