Growing Up in an Urbanising World
Chawla, Louise (ed.) (2002).
Paris and London: UNESCO and Earthscan; 254 pages. $£18.95. ISBN 1853838284.
Recent events in the Middle East have brought Western attention to the struggles of children, youth and families of the developing world. The living conditions of children in Afghanistan and Iraq, the social pressures of the majority-youth population in Saudi Arabia, and the U.S.-led drive to inculcate a sense of democratic ownership among the people of the Middle East raise questions about the future of their societies. One question in particular comes to mind after reading Growing Up in an Urbanising World: What provisions are being made to prepare young people to take part in the rethinking, rebuilding and maintenance of cities and towns to support healthy development and democratic participation?
Given current political events and growing international attention on children’s rights, the theme of editor Louise Chawla’s current volume is even more pertinent today than it was 30 years ago, when the effort to understand the impact of urban environments on children and youth began in earnest.
In the 1970s, the practice of advocacy planning stimulated an integrated way of thinking about human development, environmental science, urban planning, and ecological and environmental psychology that acknowledged the variety of ways in which people shape and are shaped by their environments. Kevin Lynch, author of The Image of the City, brought a developmental perspective to the new movement, creating a project that would inspire widespread recognition of children’s agency and their need for “life-fostering environments” (23). In partnership with UNESCO, Lynch developed the idea of conducting action research with children in low-income, rapidly urbanizing environments in the industrialized and developing worlds and named his work, “Growing Up in Cities.” Lynch envisioned research with children that would lead to their active participation in community change; he died before his concept could be fully realized, having finished only the research phase of the project.
Twenty years later, Chawla, supported by the UNESCO-MOST Programme, picked up where Lynch left off and resurrected Growing Up in Cities (GUIC) while conducting research as a Fulbright Scholar at the Norwegian Centre for Child Research. Chawla is now the international co-coordinator of the GUIC project.
Growing Up in an Urbanising World describes the regeneration of the project and features eight case studies of GUIC action research activities conducted between 1996 and 1998 at sites around the world. Researchers in Melbourne, Australia, and Warsaw, Poland, reprise Lynch’s original work, taking a second-generation look at the issues for children in low-income communities and recording how changes in neighborhoods over time affect children’s comfort within them. The book also includes new case studies of children’s experiences in neighborhoods of Trondheim, Norway; Oakland, California, USA; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Northampton, United Kingdom; Bangalore, India; and Johannesburg, South Africa. Each project involved youth ages 10 to 15 who live in low or mixed-income communities. The case studies provide an insightful look into the universal qualities children and youth desire in their communities, as well as some telling differences between children of the North and South in satisfaction with their environments.
Chawla’s introduction provides a thorough perspective on the history of the GUIC project. It also describes the differences between Lynch’s work and the research done in the last few years, as well as the project’s goals and basic findings. Chapters on each of the eight sites follow, and Chawla summarizes the expressed desires and concerns of the children in the last chapter. An appendix outlines the research guidelines of the project and includes methods and interview questions. (For a more detailed description of the GUIC methods and guidance in conducting a similar research project, see David Driskell’s Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth.)
Throughout the book, themes of satisfaction and alienation emerge related to children’s perception of their place in the larger community and the probability of their ideas being taken seriously by adults. In the least-developed areas, children who already felt valued and valuable to their communities eagerly took up the challenge to help design needed resources, such as clean drinking-water systems. Kanchan Bannerjee and David Driskell found that young people in Sathyanagar, a slum district of Bangalore, India, felt “confident, connected and happy” (their emphasis) despite the lack of basic infrastructure in their environment (135). Children in Boca-Baraccas, Buenos Aires, also displayed high self-esteem and enjoyment of their “very poor” environment. In both cases, a cultural richness and creativity pervaded the communities. It is obvious that these happy children would prosper, given the proper resources and attention by officials to provide them with clean, healthy environments. At the other end of the development spectrum, children in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia reported quite different assessments of their environments.
In the U.K., Barry Percy-Smith detected an increasing marginalization of young people; their perceptions that community leaders regard them as stupid and ignorant, and their experiences of being pushed to the fringes of community life, is leading to a “‘culture of non-participation’” (78). Similarly, in Braybrook, Melbourne, Karen Malone and Lindsay Hasluck found that youth are overtly and covertly excluded from public spaces. Youth reported a deep sense of alienation where they felt disengaged from community life and imprisoned by restrictions on their movement and assembly. Even so, the researchers also report on the various creative ways in which young people coped with their environments and participated in envisioning new community spaces. Ilaria Salvadori, who conducted research in Oak Park, Oakland, California, found that
…children are resourceful in creating alternative geographies in spite of the restrictions created by the adult world. These meaningful spaces can be the starting point of a new ecology, where children can become more confident actors in their community as well as agents of change in the outside world (199).In resurrecting the GUIC project, Chawla and her colleagues bring new attention to the concerns of urban children in both developing and industrialized nations, giving researchers, practitioners and children tools with which to actively take part in the betterment of their communities. The book and the ongoing GUIC projects – including five new sites since the book was published – have important implications for research, policy and practice. The GUIC research in South Africa, for example, has influenced urban policy relating to children and adults in squatter camps and inner-city areas. Children of the Canaansland squatter camp took their proposals to the local government, which has begun building needed infrastructure and resources for camp dwellers. The project is an excellent model of action research and its extension, community change. It promotes the realistic implementation of the international mandates of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Habitat Agenda and Agenda 21.
Growing Up in an Urbanising World is vital reading for planners, youth workers, community development practitioners, NGO staff members, and others who strive to improve the living conditions and social cohesion of the people with whom they work. Together with its companion volume, the practical research manual, Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth, the book can help adults value young people’s voices in community matters. The current sociopolitical climate in favor of children’s rights to participate supports and demands such efforts.
Reviewer Information
University of Colorado
Darcy Varney is a student in the Ph.D. Design and Planning Program at the University of Colorado. Her recent research has delved into child and youth participation in community-based activities and adult participation in U.S. public housing redevelopment. Her main area of interest is child-friendly cities, including children's access to and exclusion from public space.