ABSTRACT

Half the world's children live in cities and the proportion is growing. Their environment critically determines their futures and the world they will make as adults. This text, by an interdisciplinary team of international child-environment authorities, explores how crucial the relationship of the young and their surroundings is. Covering eight countries, it shows the enormous benefits - for them, for the wider society and for the future - of involving children, especially from underprivileged communities, in planning and implementing urban improvements. It continues and updates Kevin Leech's pioneering 1970s MIT project, Growing Up in Cities.

chapter |3 pages

Introductory Note

chapter 1|20 pages

Cities for Human Development

chapter 2|22 pages

Our Neighbourhood is Like That!

Cultural Richness and Childhood Identity in Boca-Baraccas, Buenos Aires

chapter 3|24 pages

Contested Worlds

Constraints and Opportunities in City and Suburban Environments in an English Midlands City

chapter 4|29 pages

Australian Youth

Aliens in a Suburban Environment

chapter 6|26 pages

Tales from Truth Town

Children's Lives in a South Indian ‘Slum’

chapter 8|18 pages

Between Fences

Living and Playing in a California City

chapter 9|17 pages

Adapting During a Time of Great Change

A Return to Warsaw