The Routledge Handbook of Designing Public Spaces for Young People

Processes, Practices and Policies for Youth Inclusion

Janet Loebach, Sarah Little, Adina Cox, Patsy Eubanks Owens

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780429012815
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

The Routledge Handbook of Designing Public Spaces for Young People is a thorough and practical resource for all who wish to influence policy and design decisions in order to increase young people's access to and use of public spaces, as well as their role in design and decision-making processes.

The ability of youth to freely enjoy public spaces, and to develop a sense of belonging and attachment to these environments, is critical for their physical, social, cognitive, and emotional development. Young people represent a vital citizen group with legitimate rights to occupy and shape their public environments, yet they are often driven out of public places by adult users, restrictive bylaws, or hostile designs. It is also important that children and youth have the opportunity to genuinely participate in the planning of public spaces, and to have their needs considered in the design of the public realm.

This book provides both evidence and tools to help effectively advocate for more youth-inclusive public environments, as well as integrate youth directly into both research and design processes related to the public realm. It is essential reading for researchers, design and planning professionals, community leaders, and youth advocates.

Part I

Introduction

Why We Need to Include Youth in the Creation and Use of Outdoor Public Environments

The first part of the book presents research that makes the case for why including youth in the public realm is crucial. As a young researcher, one of our editors submitted a paper on designing for adolescents for publication. One reviewer’s comments captured the thoughts of many others— “why would I want to do that?” The reviewer’s conclusion, that now they knew what not to do to attract teens, was disheartening. This response prompted a quest to build the argument as to why it is in society’s best interest to include youth in the public realm both as participants and decision-makers. How can others be persuaded that youth inclusion is necessary and beneficial for everyone? The research-based arguments included in this part are intended to provide a resource for others in situations such as seeking to convince a funder to support a youth-focused project or counteracting a property owner attempting to ban youth from their business.

The first three chapters focus on the contribution that youth inclusion in the public realm has to the positive and supportive development of youth. Owens’s chapter, A Fundamental Need: Linking Youth Development to the Public Realm, examines adolescents’ developmental tasks and how the physical environment can, and should, support these tasks. For example, the public realm is an appropriate setting where youth can develop satisfying social relationships: however those activities are often questioned or discouraged by adults. Cox’s chapter, Freedom to Flourish: Why Independent Mobility and Access to the Public Realm is Important for Youth Development, focuses attention on the role of independent mobility in youth development. She provides evidence that allowing youth to independently engage in outdoor environments on their own terms supports higher rates of physical activity, increased social competency, and other lifelong benefits. Gray’s chapter, Risky Play: Why Children Love and Need It, focuses on the beneficial role of risk in youth development and highlights the negative implications of society’s attempts to provide youth with risk-free experiences. Gray closes by providing examples of efforts to reintroduce risky play into the lives of young people.

The next chapters in this part provide arguments for the inclusion of youth in particular public settings and planning processes. Torres’s chapter, Why Is It Important to Provide Child- and Youth-Friendly Streets? examines the role that public streets have, and can play, in a young person’s life. These informal settings, once a venue for youth to play and socialize, have evolved into a place of youth exclusion. In Experiential Accessibility: A Therapeutic Approach to the Design of the Public Realm, Little provides arguments for the mental and physical health benefits of public spaces particularly for those youth living with disabilities. Accessibility in response to mobility concerns has become more commonplace, while accessibility responsive to other limitations is less frequent.

The next two chapters in this part examine the benefits of involving youth in policy, planning, and design decisions. Fernandez, Harris, and Black focus on the importance of incorporating the voices of marginalized youth in Engaging Racially and Ethnically Marginalized Youth as Stakeholders of Outdoor Public Environments. These youth often face additional challenges such as discrimination by those in power, a lack of economic resources, and structural barriers. The authors describe the benefits for youth and society of including their viewpoints, and also provide an overview of considerations for community planners. Melcher’s chapter, Youth-Built Projects: Involving Youth in the Construction of Public Places, examines the history of youth engagement in project construction. She describes how this involvement can improve a young person’s connections to a place, increase their relationship to the broader community, and instill a sense of self-worth and empowerment.

These chapters present compelling arguments for Why the inclusion of youth in the public realm is a worthy and necessary goal. The research and experiences presented in these chapters illustrate the positive implications of youth inclusion on an individual young person, youth as a distinct group, and society more generally. Individual youth need supportive environments for a healthy progression to adulthood. Places and processes that intentionally seek to address these developmental needs are warranted. Likewise, respecting the rights of youth, particularly in the context of social justice and equity, contributes to engaged citizens. In contrast to the feelings of exclusion and disenfranchisement experienced by many youth, the examples shared illustrate that youth can feel welcome and respected in their community. Lastly, societal benefits associated with youth inclusion in the public realm are numerous. For example, along with building a base of engaged citizens, youth voices contribute to a more comprehensive awareness of community issues and experiences. This, in turn, informs the creation of relevant and effective services, programs, place design, and policies.

1

A Fundamental Need

Linking Youth Development to the Public Realm

Patsy Eubanks Owens¹

A Fundamental Need: Linking Youth Development to the Public Realm

The public realm, and specifically the publicly accessible physical environments, plays an important role in the lives of youth. By definition the public realm should be open to everyone. Others have written about the public realm and the role it plays in public life (e.g., Moudon, 1987; Carr, Francis, Rivlin, & Stone, 1992), and these works make a strong case as to the significance of these spaces in fulfilling many human needs. From the early functional role of the public square for the exchange of goods, to providing a venue for public discourse, to a representation of power, the public realm continually serves as a venue for human experience. The access, and control of that access, to public space is not always clear. In many instances, certain populations are not given the same freedom to use these spaces as others. Non-conforming behaviors and an individual’s appearance are two reasons often cited for limiting access to public space. Youth, and in particular older youth, are frequently subjected to this exclusion (Owens, 2002). In addition, what counts as the public realm is also evolving. While historically, public spaces were owned by public entities, the advent of privately owned public spaces has become more prevalent (Nemeth & Schmidt, 2011). With these spaces, the lines of authority to prohibit activities or persons have become blurred. The standards of behavior are often subjective and unstated, while the visual appearance criteria are determined on a case-by-case basis. Young people are particularly susceptible to this judgment, whether in publicly or privately owned spaces, and are often denied access. While others have written about these exclusionary practices (e.g., Owens, 2002; Leiberg, 1995), this chapter looks to make the case that the inclusion of youth in the public realm is a fundamental need for young people and a responsibility of society.

Young people have rights in keeping with those of the population as a whole. While some rights vary between countries and other public authorities, the premise that youth should be afforded the same opportunities as older citizens is articulated in the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (Convention on the Rights of the Child, n.d.). The CRC defines the civil, social, and cultural rights, along with other rights, of persons under the age of 18. Those entities ratifying the CRC are obliged to act in the “best interest” of these young people.² While the responsibility for ensuring safety and shelter for children is clear in the CRC, the responsibility and necessity for allowing them access to public spaces is less clear. The arguments discussed here seek to make the case that providing youth access to a supportive built environment is an important component of acting in the young person’s best interest.

CALLOUT BOX 1.1 The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is an international human rights treaty consisting of 54 Articles that set out the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of every person under the age of 18. Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989, its guiding principles are non-discrimination; the best interests of the child; right to life, survival, and development; and the right to participate. The 196 countries that have ratified the UNCRC are required to respect and guarantee children’s rights to provision, protection, and participation including the right to health, to live free from violence, to education, and to play. Importantly, the Convention recognizes children as rights-holders and adults as duty-bearers who must uphold these rights. Key Articles include: Article 31 that recognizes a child’s right to rest, leisure, and to engage in play and artistic expression; Article 12 that assures the child the right to express their views freely in all matters and decisions affecting them and that these views are given due weight according to a child’s evolving capacity; Article 15 that recognizes a child’s right to freedom of association; and Article 29 (a) that recognizes a child’s right to develop their personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential, and to develop respect for the natural environment (Art. 29e).

For more information see: www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/

By Virginia Caputo, PhD

Associate Professor and Director

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Landon Pearson Centre for the Study of Childhood and Children’s Rights

Carleton University

Ottawa, Canada

The physical environments where we live are the settings for a range of activities. These environments can either support or hinder the activities in which people wish to engage. Designers and planners seek to understand a community’s needs—are more soccer fields, a home for a growing farmer’s market, or bicycle lanes needed? Beyond the common activity-based needs, other critical needs are often not considered. Those needs are related to the social and psychological tasks performed by residents. In particular, the developmental tasks that benefit adolescents are typically overlooked by designers, planners, and others making decisions about public places. While the developmental tasks of younger children have informed playground design for many years, the development of adolescents has been ignored in the provision of appropriate environments. In fact, many of the development-based activities in which youth engage are condemned or at least questioned by adults. For example, young people need to develop peer relationships, yet groups of adolescents gathered in public areas are discouraged by others.

This chapter begins with a brief discussion of adolescence and current societal responses to youth in the public realm. Next, the chapter presents four categories of adolescents’ developmental tasks and presents two frameworks in which to consider them. The first framework, a socio-ecological model (Brofenbrenner & Morris, 1998), provides a means to understand where in the young person’s life these tasks are likely to occur and the second, developmental affordances (Owens, 2017), examines how youth perceive and interpret how an environment will allow them to engage in these developmental tasks. Lastly, the chapter illustrates and discusses how the public realm can and should provide venues for completing these tasks.

Adolescence in Context

Defining Adolescence

Recent literature has expanded upon the original notions of adolescence. During the first half of the 20th century, a commonly held view of psychologists studying youth in Western cultures was that adolescence was a time of rebellion and difficulty. Stanley Hall’s (1904) landmark book, Adolescence, described periods of “storm and stress.” He characterized this period of development as one of conflicts, turbulence, and risky behavior. During mid-century, most conceptualizations of the developmental process included clear stages of progression (e.g., Erikson, 1956; Piaget & Inhelder, 1967). For example, Erikson’s eight stages of social-emotional development included two stages, competence and fidelity, which typically occur during the adolescent years. The competence stage as described by Erikson involves developing social skills particularly relating to peers, progressing from free play to structured play, and mastering academic subjects. During the next stage, the adolescent learns self-identity and develops self-certainty. (See Cox, Chapter 2 for additional discussion on adolescent development.)

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, contrasting views of adolesce...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Glossary
• Chapter–Subject Matrix
• Introduction
• PART I: Introduction: Why We Need to Include Youth in the Creation and Use of Outdoor Public Environments
• PART II: Introduction: How Can We Create Inclusive, Youth-Friendly Outdoor Public Environments?
• PART III: Introduction: Youth Inclusion in Practice
• Index