Understanding and shaping the city with children and youth: ehtics and participatory practice

The Convention on the Rights of the Child acknowledges children’s right to participate in the decisions that affect their life, including those concerning their living environment. Further, international declarations such as Agenda 21 and the Habitat Agenda point to children’s participation in the process of shaping their living environment as a condition for sustainable development. As participatory research and design projects with young people have flourished in recent years, they have helped demonstrate how children and youth can enhance our understanding of urban issues and contribute to the development of better cities. Nevertheless, young people’s participation is far from being institutionalized, or even widespread, particularly in regard to urban design and planning practice.

Beyond its importance in terms of rights, youth and children’s participation can be ethically justified by its positive potential outcomes such as environmental improvements that benefit everyone and deliberative process promoting community building and personal development. Nevertheless, practitioners have pointed to significant challenges in achieving meaningful participation and lasting change. They worry about raising false hopes, perpetuating ineffective practices and delivering disappointment to young people who are just beginning to explore their citizenship. They worry about the ethical dilemmas that arise when they try to achieve authentic participation as an ethically justified approach of practice.

This workshop is concerned with ethics and participation as they relate to young people, community research and city development. It addresses both the ethical grounds of participation and the ethical dilemmas that participatory practice can raise. We are simultaneously concerned with the ways in which participation can be effectively promoted as an ethical approach for practice (e.g., how to convince civic leaders that this is the right thing to do?) and the ways in which ethical issues are faced in the participatory practice (e.g., how to act properly in participatory situations?).

Contact: Juan Torres,
jj.torres.michel[at]umontreal.ca
Centre de recherche en éthique de l’Université de Montréal, CRÉUM
Phone: 514 3436111, Ext. 1-0853
Fax: 514 3437899