Abstract
Through decades of research, the authors, Derr, Chawla, and Mintzer, present this very practical guidebook on meaningfully engaging with children and young people to create sustainable futures for cities. The authors explain the gist of the book as, “we are all trying to make the world a better place” (p. 2) through the agency of children and young people. They specifically do this by presenting a wide range of tools, methods, actions, and advocacy related to cities for children and youth. Starting with the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child, the authors place children and youth at the center of the rights discourse, by emphasizing that they have the same rights as adults when it comes to local planning processes and decision-making.
With the growing academic and professional attention on planning with children, and the global trend of child-friendly cities (Brown et al. 2019, Gill 2021, Riggio 2002), this book is a timely guide on the wide-ranging ways to engage with children and young people. By taking the reader through a series of cases and methods, the book explores how we can better engage children and young people in planning practice. The authors have organized the book into eleven chapters that can be read independently, with chapters 1 to 4 focusing on contextualizing the work within the larger discourse of ethics and engagement; chapters 5 to 8 outlining methods to engage children in planning and design; and chapters 9 to 12 framing ideas on reporting, analyzing, and evaluating the outcomes of engagement.
The central focus of the book is on how to include young people and children in decision-making given their history of exclusion from urban planning and design. “Participation shifts the emphasis from government action and decision-making to democratic engagement, where all members of a community have expertise on the places where they live and can meaningfully contribute to shaping their physical structure and policies” (p. 11). For this to happen meaningfully, the authors argue that there needs to be place-based participation, that is, local contexts and how contexts shape stakeholders’ lives need to be identified. To keep processes transparent and inclusive is a huge ask, but there are mechanisms that can be used to foster trust, such as identifying local leaders in a community who can act as champions for the process (key stakeholders, p. 19). Importantly, identifying members from across the community who are most vulnerable (p. 11) is key to ensuring equity within engagement. The authors also argue that making sure the process is sustainable is key. This can be ensured by developing a “sense of personal responsibility” for young people by “developing opportunities to express their voice, share ideas with city leaders and develop a sense to stewardship and investment in their community” (p. 12).
The book is saturated with methods for engaging children and young people in participatory processes. Methods highlighted in the book include arts-based methods (chapter 5) such as murals, nicho boxes, photo voice, child-led tours, map making, and ways to adapt interviews and focus groups to children and young people. The authors explain these methods using practical and real-life examples including sample questionnaires, photographs, and outcomes from projects carried out across the world. For example, the authors illustrate the use of nicho boxes (p. 80) through the Growing Up Boulder project. Here, participants used the nicho box, which is a repurposed shoe box or package with collected objects, to curate and display their relationship to places.
By showcasing global examples, the authors illustrate that the methods used for participation need to be relevant to the community context while respecting time, budget, and cultural nuance. Chapter 11 brings together various cases including a schoolyard design in London, Ontario (Canada), promoting safe communities in Bhopal and Mumbai (India) and planning safe public spaces in the Hague (the Netherlands). The authors explain that all participation and engagement should have an educational component, whereby all parties involved gain something from the process. By starting with background research on the community using secondary sources and documents, all stakeholders involved gain knowledge about historic use, demographic make-up, and the evolution of the space. Furthermore, to be implemented successfully, most of the methods discussed in the book need investment, through training, for facilitators, and commitment of time, from the project lead. Each of the methods, whether, photographic methods, diaries, nicho boxes, or plays/ poems, all require participant training as well. The authors also call to attention that when employing these methods, one should be aware of the age group, capacity (e.g., children’s attention span), and try to keep the methods as fun and engaging as possible. Optimum results can be achieved when a variety of methods can be strategically combined (see chapter 11).
Part of working with children and young people is acknowledging the role that they play through the whole project, from inception to implementation. The authors argue that one of the most effective ways for the larger public and decision-making officials to recognize the key role that children and young people have in our society is to “take a walk in their shoes.” The book presents a wide range of ways to support child and youth-led participation that allows adults to do just that. These range from small low-key child-led tours where a child (or a small group of children) takes a group of adults around the neighborhood to young people speaking at large public events or at council meetings. By involving children and young people as central actors in both data collection and dissemination, the project is enriched by perspectives that only they can provide.
From the early in the book, the authors emphasize the role of partners and local leadership in project success. “While one-time projects help increase young people’s perspectives for a particular space or time, sustained participation, through institutionalized programming, helps shift the balance of power by normalizing young people’s inclusion in decision making” (p. 12). They set-out processes through which successful partnerships can be created with universities, municipal actors, third sectors/nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), planning boards, schools, and so on to sustain young people’s participation long term. The importance of institutionalizing participation is highlighted through various examples including a case called “Growing Up Boulder” that reoccurs throughout the book. “Growing Up Boulder” is a successful example of sustained partnership between the University of Colorado Boulder, the city of Boulder and the Boulder Valley School District for twelve years. Since March 2021, Growing Up Boulder is an independent nonprofit.
Finally, worth noting is that the authors dedicate a full chapter to the ethics of working with young people and children. They argue the importance of setting ethical benchmarks for working with young people and remind the reader that this requires an acknowledgment of the power disparities between partners and finding ways to mitigate disparities by creating an inclusive working environment. The creation of a formal contract that clearly states the goals and agreement between the parties involved is a one step toward creating transparency in the process and fostering respect. By providing sample consent and assent forms, the authors provide future researchers with a place to start. The authors also present a sample “Memorandum of Agreement” between the project partners and young people. Protecting participants in research takes various forms, from ethics boards to smaller steps (such as a contract), and the authors encourage readers to take a deeper look at how ethical practices can be sustained in projects.
The book puts the community and those that are most vulnerable at the center of the decision-making discourse. Learning to listen, respect and respond to a wide range of voices is a central tenet of participatory placemaking, and the authors highlight this throughout the book. By compiling this guide, they have created a go-to resource for not just academics, students, and researchers, but for anyone who has an interest in creating more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable futures for communities. These include planners, designers, and local governments with an interest in working with children and young people.