Talking about my future city: Engaging young voices through persona-based participation

Questions about who is included and excluded from spatial planning are shaping current debates about urban environments, including future-oriented inquiries about whose needs future cities will best serve. The role of children and youth in discussing and shaping urban futures is crucial, as these groups will inhabit the cities currently under development. In this paper, we report on an activity meant to explore novel ways in which young people can be engaged in debates about urban futures. This exploration comes at a time when changes in the Swedish national planning framework have taken place and youth has been recognized as a group in need to be involved in participatory spatial planning. We present findings from an activity where personas - fictional characters - were employed to involve a group of young individuals in discussions and co-creation of developments concerning the future of their living environments in the South of Stockholm. Our results suggest that personas serve as valuable elicitation tools for capturing diverse viewpoints and bridging abstract planning concepts with the lived experiences of young individuals.