Peer-reviewed article
Developing child-friendly cities: Young children’s participation in urban planning
Terese Wilhelmsen, Steinar Øvreås, Hege Roll-Hansen, Anne‐Line Bjerknes, Simen Thorrud ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study investigated what makes cities child-friendly by asking young children aged 3-6 and their parents about urban spaces. Children participated through guided tours, conversations, drawings and play with Lego, while parents identified and surveyed locations they visited. The research identified four key features of child-friendly cities: green spaces, challenging play opportunities, family-oriented places, and safe playgrounds and walking routes.
Key points
- Four characteristics of child-friendly cities identified: green lungs, creative and challenging play opportunities, places for the whole family, and safe playgrounds and walking routes
- Young children (aged 3-6) were directly involved in participatory research methods including guided tours, field conversations, drawing and constructive play
- Parents (n=14) contributed by identifying preferred locations and surveying what they liked and disliked about urban spaces
- The study was framed within children's rights perspective, affordance theory and child-friendly outdoor environments
- Multiple research methods were employed with 16 children from three early childhood education and care institutions
Limitations
This study documents what children and parents value in urban spaces but does not evaluate whether implementing these features actually improves children's well-being or participation outcomes. The sample is small and from one municipality in Norway, limiting generalisability to other contexts.
Abstract
This article is based on a collaborative project between a municipality and a research team, aiming to investigate participatory methods that promote young children’s interest and participation in, and access to express their views in connection with, urban planning processes. The research question was: What characterizes a child-friendly city for young children and their families? The article is framed within the perspective of children’s rights, affordance and child-friendly outdoor environments. The project has employed multiple research methods. The participants were children (aged 3-6) and parents from three early childhood education and care institutions. The children (n=16) participated in guided tours, field conversations, drawing and constructive play using Lego. The parents (n=14) participated by identifying the locations that they preferred to frequent with their children, and a structured survey was used to identify what the parents liked and disliked about the places they identified. Our findings indicate that there are four important features that characterise a child-friendly city: 1) The availability of ‘green lungs’, 2) Creative and challenging play opportunities, 3) Places for the whole family, and 4) Safe playgrounds and walking routes. We discuss how better knowledge of what characterizes a child-friendly city can contribute to planning processes.