Growing Up in an Urbanising World

Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 13 No. 2 (2003) ISSN: 1546-2250 Growing Up in an Urbanising World Chawla, Louise (2002). Paris and London: UNESCO and Earthscan; 254 pages. £18. 95. ISBN 1853838284. Recent events in the Middle East have broughtWestern attention to the struggles of children, youth and families ofthe developing world. The living conditions of children inAfghanistan and Iraq, the social pressures of the majority-youthpopulation in Saudi Arabia, and the U. S. -led drive to inculcate a senseof democratic ownership among the people of the Middle East raisequestions about the future of their societies. One question inparticular comes to mind after reading Growing Up in an Urbanising World: What provisions are being made to prepare young people to take part inthe rethinking, rebuilding and maintenance of cities and towns tosupport healthy development and democratic participation? Given current political events and growing international attention onchildren’s rights, the theme of editor Louise Chawla’s current volumeis even more pertinent today than it was 30 years ago, when the effortto understand the impact of urban environments on children and youthbegan in earnest. In the 1970s, the practice of advocacy planning stimulated anintegrated way of thinking about human development, environmentalscience, urban planning, and ecological and environmental psychologythat acknowledged the variety of ways in which people shape and areshaped by their environments. Kevin Lynch, author of The Image of the City, brought a developmental perspective to the new movement, creating aproject that would inspire widespread recognition of children’s agencyand their need for “life-fostering environments” (23). In partnershipwith UNESCO, Lynch developed the idea of conducting action researchwith children in low-income, rapidly urbanizing environments in theindustrialized and developing worlds and named his work, “Growing Up inCities. ” Lynch envisioned research with children that would lead totheir active participation in community change; he died before hisconcept 183 could be fully realized, having finished only the researchphase 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 theNorwegian Centre for Child Research. Chawla is now the internationalco-coordinator of the GUIC project. Growing Up in an Urbanising World describes the regeneration ofthe project and features eight case studies of GUIC action researchactivities conducted between 1996 and 1998 at sites around the world. Researchers in Melbourne, Australia, and Warsaw, Poland, repriseLynch’s original work, taking a second-generation look at the issuesfor children in low-income communities and recording how changes inneighborhoods over time affect children’s comfort within them. The bookalso includes new case studies of children’s experiences inneighborhoods of Trondheim, Norway; Oakland, California, USA; BuenosAires, Argentina; Northampton, United Kingdom; Bangalore, India; andJohannesburg, South Africa. Each project involved youth ages 10 to 15who live in low or mixedincome communities. The case studies providean insightful look into the universal qualities children and youthdesire in their communities, as well as some telling differencesbetween children of the North and South in satisfaction with theirenvironments. Chawla’s introduction provides a thorough perspective on the history ofthe GUIC project. It also describes the differences between Lynch’swork and the research done in the last few years, as well as theproject’s goals and basic findings. Chapters on each of the eight sitesfollow, and Chawla summarizes the expressed desires and concerns of thechildren in the last chapter. An appendix outlines the researchguidelines of the project and includes methods and interview questions. (For a more detailed description of the GUIC methods and guidance inconducting a similar research project, see David Driskell’s Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth. ) Throughout the book, themes of satisfaction and alienation emergerelated to children’s perception of their place in the larger communityand the probability of their ideas being taken seriously 184 by adults. Inthe least-developed areas, children who already felt valued andvaluable to their communities eagerly took up the challenge to helpdesign needed resources, such as clean drinkingwater systems. KanchanBannerjee and David Driskell found that young people in Sathyanagar, aslum district of Bangalore, India, felt “confident, connected and happy” (their emphasis) despite the lack of basic infrastructure in theirenvironment (135). Children in BocaBaraccas, Buenos Aires, alsodisplayed high. . .