Establishing Opportunities for Children to Initiate Participatory Activities

The Kinshai Campus Project

Abstract

*Focus on Japan | Reports from the Field

This paper describes Kinshai Campus, a stopping place on a neighborhood shopping street where children can come daily to play freely with each other and with supportive adults. It analyzes how children themselves were enabled to initiate significant participatory activities with each other and with adults. It describes several participatory episodes in which children felt comfortable in being the initiators of activities rather than waiting for adult initiatives. The paper concludes that small but significant changes in the informal ways that children relate to adults in their daily lives may be more important for establishing a more participatory community culture than short-term participation events designed by adults.