Growing Up in Cities is a broad-based international research initiative that revisits and extends a project, conceived in 1970, that examine ways in which children use and perceive the environments that shape their lives.
The original project, directed by urban designer Kevin Lynch and funded by UNESCO, involved research in four countries and resulted in Growing Up in Cities, a classic in child-environment literature for both its methods and findings. Lynch found remarkable agreement among children, across culture and urban contexts, as to what constituted a superior environment. Children were most satisfied when their worlds were defined by strong and inclusive cultural frameworks, and when they were free to explore the physical environment without fear of physical harm.
In 1994 environmental psychologist Louise Chawla, a professor at Kentucky State University, proposed revisiting Lynch’s work in order to address two of its unfulfilled goals: improving urban design through participatory projects with children and informing local and national policy with regard to the needs of children in cities. By May 2002, again with primary sponsorship from UNESCO, the revived Growing Up in Cities project had studied urban quality and children’s priorities for change in more than a dozen countries.
In most respects, it found that Lynch’s conclusions remained remarkably valid. However, a key feature of the effort this time around has been to try to use the very activity of research to build participatory social networks and political coalitions to bring the needs of children to more popular attention. In presenting a research award to Growing up in Cities, jurors were particularly excited by its ability to move beyond the weaknesses of the earlier effort.
The revived initiative has produced a considerable volume of material drawn from fourteen research sites around the world. Much of this now appears in two books. Growing Up in an Urbanising World, edited by Chawla, the project coordinator, provides an overview of goals and philosophy and presents research findings from eight of the sites. 1 Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth, by planner David Driskell, serves more as a «how-to» manual, outlining procedures and practices to seek out and integrate the views of children into participatory planning projects. 2 Jill Swart-Kruger, an anthropologist based in South Africa, has produced a video, The Children of Thula Mntwana, that illustrates the project’s approach. There is also an extensive Web site at www.unesco.org/most/growing.htm.
In general terms, Growing up in Cities owes its name to worldwide economic and demographic trends which today see ever more children being raised in urban areas. As Chawla writes:
[T]he realities of most urban areas are that traffic dominates the streets; waste places and public open spaces are often barren or dangerous; children’s hunger for trees does not appear to be shared by most developers and city officials; communities still have to fight to maintain their heritage and identity in the face of development pressures; most children have narrowly limited ranges of movement; and research with children and attention to their needs are emphatically not part of most urban policy planning and design and management practices. 3
Despite this gloomy picture, project researchers believe several promising events have intervened since Lynch’s time. Primary among these was United Nations’ adoption in 1989 of the International Convention of the Rights of the Child. That agreement contained provisions that call on member states to recognize the right of children to participate in design decisions affecting their lives.
Recognition of the value of input from children has also been incorporated into several international sustainable-development and environmental-protection compacts. The thinking here is that environments will improve for everyone when they become more supportive of the needs of young people.
In their comments on the project, jurors praised the rigorous research methodology. Armed with a common set of guidelines, Growing Up in Cities researchers may work separately while sharing their findings broadly. Most of their projects have required little or no capital investment.
As with many such studies, much of the work is based on observation, mapping, and interviews. After a period of initial informal observation, researchers move to more formal techniques, including objective strategies as behavioral mapping, documentary photography and background data-gathering. But more important are efforts to have children relate their own points of view. Techniques included participatory design projects or having children produce their own neighborhood maps, take photographs or lead explanatory walks. Formal interviews, community workshops, and focus groups have also been employed.
In general, researchers found there were strikingly similar characteristics of place that cause children to feel either sustained or marginalized, and that these seemed directly related to the quality of culture surrounding them (see accompanying chart).
A key finding, though, is that beyond a generally acceptable level of health and welfare, increased material prosperity does not seem to affect children’s sense of satisfaction with their environments. Out of the eight case studies Chawla’s book presents, children’s sense of satisfaction was greatest in Sathyanagar, a self-built settlement on the periphery of Bangalore, India; and in Boca-Barracas, a working-class district of Buenos Aries. In both places, children were accepted participants in a vibrant cultural framework. They were also relatively free to move around within this protected space.
By contrast, a sense of alienation was prevalent among children in research sites in the United States, Britain and Australia. Children here complained of boredom, lack of safe unstructured play space and general marginalization within the arena of public life.
Such findings led Chawla to conclude that the current development model of increased industrialization and integration into a free market may not be adequate to children’s needs. Equal concern should go to preserving «social capital», she argues. By this she means such things as maintaining a valued role for children, increasing the importance of rituals of cultural identity, and supporting community self-help efforts.
One of the most important aspects of Growing up in Cities is what is that it is not another expert study of child-friendly practices for city planning. Accordingly, it manages to steer clear of the pitfalls, however well-intentioned, of design-based environmental determinism.
Instead, the backbone of the research is a belief that research itself may create opportunities for political engagement. The very act of seeking input from children can make an entire community more aware and responsive to the needs of a minority population in its midst.
Such was the case in the South African case, where the Mayor of Johannesburg met with a group of children in an effort to understand their point of view. In India, although many desired practical outcomes were subverted by local politicians, several new organizations were founded, and important issues of pubic health were given prominence.
Even more importantly, the experience of participation is extremely positive for children. At the age of ten to fifteen years old, many are beginning to develop a sense of their own identity. This is precisely when increased interaction with the world my be reinforcing feelings that their particular awareness of place will always be disregarded. By contrast, participation in environmental decision-making fosters self-esteem and self-efficacy, and may lead to a greater appreciation of democratic values.
There are many pitfalls to such a participatory approach to child welfare. For instance, Chawla writes, «much that passes for participation in government, non-governmental organisations, and planning practice . . . falls under tokenism, decoration and manipulation.» 4
Not only did researchers have to deal with those who claimed to already know what children wanted, but, Chawla notes, «they also had to contend with well-intended but misguided officials who believed that they had achieved participation if children sang a song at a ceremony. Other politicians were quick to co-opt the GUIC process by having publicity pictures taken with children, although they never followed up on anything that the children proposed.» 5
Still, an appeal for basic public services will always be stronger if it is backed by the voices of children. According to Chawla, «Few mayors or other officials will overtly oppose the reasonable requests of a group of children who want to cooperate to improve their environment.» 6
David Moffat1.
Louise Chawla, editor, Growing Up in an Urbanising World (London: UNESCO
and Earthscan, Ltd., 2002).
2. David Driskell, Creating Better Cities with Children
and Youth (London: UNESCO and Earthscan, Ltd., 2002).
3. Chawla, Growing Up in an Urbanising World, p.25.
4. Chawla.
5. Chawla.
6. Chawla.