Co-Generating Urban Knowledge with Children in Istanbul

Children as Urban Investigators and Problem Solvers

Authors

  • Özlemnur Ataol
  • Sukanya Krishnamurthy
  • Oana Druta
  • Pieter van Wesemael

Keywords:

children's participation, urban planning, knowledge co-generation, participatory research, digital tools, artwork elicitation, Istanbul

Abstract

Children’s participation has been recognized asessential in participatory urban planning towards creating child-focused urban environments. However, it remains a challenge for researchers to address children’s role in urban planning, particularly in contexts where a culture of participation is missing from everyday practice. The COVID-19 pandemic posed additional challenges in executing participatory research. In this article, we applied a methodology of online artwork elicitations with ten children from Istanbul. From our co-generated research findings, we argue that children are valuable social agents not only in urban planning but also in the fight against urgent and dramatic challenges facingour planet. Children’s participation better informssolutionswhen children guide knowledge generation.

Published

2023-03-08