title: Just the Sprinkles on Top: understanding children and young people's participation in urban planning
Creators: name: Sawyer, Taylor
Publisher: name: University of Glasgow
Year: 2022

description: Background and rational: This study set out to respond to the aim of analysing how on-going city-wide participatory planning tools designed to gather information about children’s preferences and needs impact the decision making and design of a city. To do so, it answered research questions about the ways in which children and young people’s inputs in participation are gathered and used and about the ways in which participatory methods are educational. Methods: Data was collected in relation to six units of analysis within a single case study site. The case study site was Oslo, Norway and the units of analysis were each methods of children and young people’s participation. This study involved 40 semi-structed interviews with youth council members, youth council secretaries, children’s representatives, urban planners, teachers, urban designers, project coordinators, and architects from a geographical spread across Oslo. This data was triangulated with observations of a public space transformation involving small groups of local children and young people, and with textual analysis of print and digital materials such as participation reports, participation heatmaps, leaflets from neighbourhood transformation projects, as well as guideline and policy documents about children’s participation in Norway. Results: The findings chapters are thematically presented, drawing on data from all the units of analysis and referencing frameworks for measuring children and young people’s participation – specifically Hart’s Ladder of Children’s Participation (1992) and The Council of Europe Handbook on Children’s Participation. The first findings chapter begins to tell the story of children and young people’s participation from the perspective of young participants. It describes the conditions in which they participate and identifies signs of nonparticipation. The second findings chapter turns towards adult facilitators of participation, to present and discuss their experiences and additional signs on nonparticipation. The third findings chapter focuses on the translation process that adult facilitators engage in to make planning comprehensible to children and young people and to make children and young people’s inputs accessible to planners. The final findings chapter examines the planning system in order to identify how the structures and mechanisms of planning allow and prevent participation with children and young people. Conclusions: This thesis argues that there is a mismatch between the Norwegian state’s evident commitment to children and young people’s participation in planning and the delivery of meaningful participation with children and young people. It does not condemn anyone in particular, but rather observes (and offers recommendations) related to several critical logistical problems that are lessening the effectiveness and ethicality of participation with children and young people in Oslo. At the same time, it points out the reality of systematic barriers that exist because of the planning system which block the full realisation of the method and laws that Norway has created to strengthen children’s rights and increase and enhance participation with children and young people in urban planning.