ABSTRACT

Urban living has dramatically changed over the past generation, refashioning children’s relationships with the towns and cities in which they live, and the modes of living within them. Focusing on the global shift in urban planning towards sustainable urbanism - from master planned ‘sustainable communities’, to the green retrofitting of existing urban environments - Children Living in Sustainable Built Environments offers a critical analysis of the challenges, tensions and opportunities for children and young people living in these environments.

Drawing upon original data, Children Living in Sustainable Built Environments demonstrates how the needs, interests and participation of children and young people often remain inferior to the design, planning and local politics of new urban communities. Considering children from their crucial role as residents engaging and contributing to the vitalities of their community, to their role as consumers using and understanding sustainable design features, the book critically discusses the prospects of future inclusion of children and young people as a social group in sustainable urbanism.

Truly interdisciplinary, Children Living in Sustainable Built Environments forms an original theoretical and empirical contribution to the understanding of the everyday lives of children and young people and will appeal to academics and students in the fields of education, childhood studies, sociology, anthropology, human geography and urban studies, as well as policy-makers, architects, urban planners and other professionals working on sustainable urban designs.

chapter 1|13 pages

Introduction

New urbanisms, new citizens

chapter 4|22 pages

Living with Sustainable Urban Technologies

chapter 5|22 pages

Sustainable Mobilities

chapter 6|27 pages

Constituting Communities

Welcoming, belonging, excluding

chapter 7|18 pages

Vital Politics

Children and young people's participation in public space and local decision-making

chapter 8|29 pages

Making Space for Vitality in Sustainable Urbanisms

Childhood and play

chapter 9|16 pages

Conclusion

Towards a theory of children and sustainable urban vitalities