Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth: A Manual for Participation
Driskell, David (2002).
Paris/ London: UNESCO/ Earthscan; $32.50. ISBN 92-3-103815-x (UNESCO); 1-85383-853-5 (Earthscan).
David Driskell’s book Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth: A Manual for Participation provides a comprehensive guide for engaging children in the community development process. It is written for urban planners, government and non-profit agencies, educators, and others involved in community development who already believe in the value of youth involvement and are seeking guidance on implementation. As author Driskell notes, the book’s focus is on “field-tested approaches and methods for making it [participation] happen” (17), rather than convincing the reader of the value of children’s participation. That being said, the book is sprinkled with useful bits of theory and real world examples that lend support to the benefits of this inclusive approach to development.
The ideas and principles presented in the book have been developed and tested through the international Growing Up in Cities project. This program (a revival and expansion of Kevin Lynch’s project that occurred in the 1970s) has engaged youth from a variety of cities throughout the world in researching and understanding their relationship to their own neighborhoods, as well as in action directed at improving the livability of their local environment. By integrating case studies from this program into the text, Driskell effectively connects theory and practice. More detailed descriptions of each project are given in the book’s companion volume, Growing up in an Urbanizing World edited by Louise Chawla.
Creating Better Cities is well-organized and clearly written. The first two chapters provide a brief overview of the basic concepts and benefits of youth participation in community projects. While these chapters are geared toward those who are less familiar with this area, even seasoned practitioners will find the concisely written chapters worth reviewing. The first chapter concludes with a particularly intriguing assignment- a self-evaluation of the reader’s own city as a place for young people to live. This exercise effectively sets the tone for the book as a practical guide by having readers frame the book’s content with their own place/project site in mind. The second chapter provides a description of what defines participation and how to make young people’s participation “real.” There is a figure that illustrates various types of participation (ranging from “decoration” to “shared decision-making”). This framework builds upon Hart’s (1999) “ladder of children’s participation,” which depicts increasing degrees of children’s initiative in a project as being on correspondingly higher rungs of the participation ladder. Driskell ranks each type of participation based upon two separate components: 1) the relative power given to participants and 2) the level of interaction with the community. While the resulting diagram is more complex and requires more effort to comprehend than Hart’s ladder, it better represents the complexities involved in defining and carrying out a participatory program.
Chapter three begins with the warning: “one of the most common reflections at the end of participatory projects is that not enough time was spent thinking through and preparing for the process before it began” (48). Chapters 3 to 5 provide useful guidance on the steps that can be taken to avoid this frequent problem. The Process Design worksheet provided in Chapter 4 is a particularly useful tool for thinking though the process of a given project in a systematic manner prior to its implementation. This chapter also includes a short section on age-appropriate activities. Unfortunately, the relationship between children’s age, and their psychological/cognitive readiness for certain types of action (such as those that require abstract thinking) is not addressed. This is regrettable as the book represents an opportunity to expose planners and policy makers to the importance of developmentally appropriate activities in providing meaningful experiences for children. An acknowledgment of the significance of this relationship (along with some suggested readings) would strengthen this section.
Chapter 6 provides an extensive “participation toolkit”- a description of methods that may be used to facilitate participation, including interviews, behavioral mapping and focus groups. Each method is written in a way that allows it to “stand alone”- individual methodologies can be photocopied and distributed during training sessions without losing the information needed to implement it. As Driskell notes, this format results in some redundancies but enhances the usefulness of the manual. A chart at the beginning of the chapter summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of each method (e.g., time required, resources, familiarity with participants etc.) would be useful in helping direct the user to the methods most relevant to their work.
The final chapter examines how evaluation results can be translated into action programs. A complete review on how to analyze the data is far beyond the scope of this manual, but Driskell does an excellent job providing general guidelines and useful resources to aid in the process. This chapter’s emphasis on setting achievable goals is also noteworthy. It strikes a nice balance between encouraging the reader to think “outside the box” and promoting realistic objectives. This is important as setting unattainable goals may result in negative, disempowering experiences for youth participants.
The manual provides a useful framework for planning and implementing development projects that engage children and youth in a meaningful way. In particular, use of this manual will help its users to steer clear of the most common pitfalls encountered in these initiatives. That being said, it should not be viewed as a cookbook for youth participation. Driskell’s closing remarks highlight the importance of the non-replicable aspect of these projects: “The magic lies in the people who make participation happen, and the human interactions that enlighten us, inspire us, and- in the end -provide the essential and lasting foundation on which better cities can be built” (176). The manual is a useful tool but building a truly successful project also requires energetic and innovative users.
Reference
Hart, Roger A. (1997). Children’s Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care. London: Earthscan Publications Ltd.
Reviewer Information
Yale/Urban Resources Initiative
Lianne Fisman received her BSc. in Environmental Science from McGill University and her MESc. from the Yale School of Forestry. She is currently working on her doctoral degree in Urban Planning at MIT. Lianne is also the Environmental Education Coordinator at the Yale/Urban Resources Initiative in New Haven, CT. She teaches an urban ecology program in a number of public schools and conducts research on the students’ environmental awareness and neighborhood perceptions.