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

ByNadia Auriat

chapter 1|20 pages

Cities for Human Development

ByLouise Chawla

chapter 2|22 pages

Our Neighbourhood is Like That!

Cultural Richness and Childhood Identity in Boca-Baraccas, Buenos Aires
ByNilda Cosco, Robin Moore

chapter 3|24 pages

Contested Worlds

Constraints and Opportunities in City and Suburban Environments in an English Midlands City
ByBarry Percy-Smith

chapter 4|29 pages

Australian Youth

Aliens in a Suburban Environment
ByKaren Malone, Lindsay Hasluck

chapter 5|23 pages

Children in a South African Squatter Camp Gain and Lose a Voice

ByJill Swart-Kruger

chapter 6|26 pages

Tales from Truth Town

Children's Lives in a South Indian ‘Slum’
ByKanchan Bannerjee, David Driskell

chapter 7|22 pages

Large but Not Unlimited Fredom in a Nordic City

ByHanne Wilhjelm

chapter 8|18 pages

Between Fences

Living and Playing in a California City
ByIlaria Salvadori

chapter 9|17 pages

Adapting During a Time of Great Change

A Return to Warsaw
ByPiotr-Olaf Zylicz

chapter 10|24 pages

Toward Better Cities for Children and Youth

ByLouise Chawla