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Childhood, Urban Space and Citizenship: Child Sensitive Urban Regeneration
Researchers: Mr Jon Greenfield, Pentagram Design Ltd
Ms Deborah Jones, Professor Margaret O'Brien, Professor Michael Rustin, Mr David Sloan, University of North London
Contact: Professor Margaret O'Brien
Faculty of Environmental & Social Sciences, University of North London, 62-66 Highbury Grove, London N5 2AD
Tel: 0171-753-5783, Fax: 0171-753-3174, Email: m.m.obrien@unl.ac.uk or d.jones@ unl.ac.uk
Duration of Research: May 1997 - April 1999
Background Information
Environmental planners have become increasingly aware of the "impossibility" of urban space for children. Parents are reporting more fears about letting their children play in the streets or walk to school alone. There is evidence that, despite a growing global emphasis on children's autonomy and rights of participation, certain groups of children are finding themselves segregated from public urban spaces. Sustainable urban regeneration requires that children as well as adults find cities liveable, lively and safe. A balance needs to be struck between the provision of urban space for children, the participation of children in the creation of urban space and the need to protect children from the dangers of contemporary urban environments.
The overall aim of this project is to examine children's place in modern urban environments in order to enable child sensitive urban regeneration. More specifically the project aims:
- to investigate how children's use of and feelings about local urban space varies by typeof locality, gender, and ethnicity and differs from parental perceptions;
- to advance theoretically, through a focus on children's relationship to local urban space, how models of citizenship can incorporate children;
- to contribute to the dialogue between social scientists, architects, planners and policy makers on children's place in the city by heightening awareness of issues in the respective professions.
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Study Design
The study will focus on demographically and spatially diverse areas in inner and outer London and a first generation new town, Hatfield. There will be a physical audit of the street-scapes, built environment and green spaces for a smaller locality within each area
In each locality school children and youth (7-15 years) will be asked about their use of, and feelings about, their locality through group discussions, interviews, mappings and drawings. Parental views about local public space and provision for children will be examined through a mixture of questionnaires and group discussions. Children will be asked to evaluate child-related urban space enhancement schemes in their area. Child and parental perceptions will be compared to observations of actual use.
A sub-sample of children and parents will be selected for more in-depth case study through daily diaries, walk-abouts and interviews. Case studies will illuminate the significance of household/ garden space, car usage and family culture on children's participation in public spaces.
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Policy And Academic Implications
The study will contribute to the process whereby children's perspectives as users of and contributes to the built and physical environment begin to be taken seriously. It will help planners identify design features which are attractive to children and which enhance participation in and accessibility of the city for children. The cross-disciplinary nature of the project team, which contains an architect as well as social scientists, will enable practical solutions to be generated for future design collaboration. As such the project should be of interest to regeneration project workers, transport agencies, parks authorities, housing authorities and developers.
The data will inform public debate about the real anxieties and constraints on children's participation in the modern city. It will show how constraints vary depending on neighbourhood, family and child characteristics.
The London focus will provide information on children's place in the capital at a time of great debate about the future of London as a global city.