Half the world's children live in cities and the proportion is growing. Their environment critically determines their futures and the world they will make as adults. This text, by an interdisciplinary team of international child-environment authorities, explores how crucial the relationship of the young and their surroundings is. Covering eight countries, it shows the enormous benefits - for them, for the wider society and for the future - of involving children, especially from underprivileged communities, in planning and implementing urban improvements. It continues and updates Kevin Leech's pioneering 1970s MIT project, Growing Up in Cities.

In our fast-changing urban world, the impacts of social and environmental change on children are often overlooked. Children and their Urban Environment examines these impacts in detail, looking at the key activities, spaces and experiences children have and how these can be managed to ensure that children benefit from change. The authors highlight the importance of planners, architects and housing professionals in creating positive environments for children and involving them in the planning process. They argue that children‘s lives are becoming simultaneously both richer and more deprived, and that, despite apparently increasing wealth, disparities between children are increasing further. Each chapter includes international examples of good practice and policy innovations for redressing the balance in favour of child supportive environments. The book seeks to embrace childhood as a time of freedom, social engagement and environmental adventure and to encourage creation of environments that better meet the needs of children. The authors argue that in doing so, we will build more sustainable neighbourhoods, cities and societies for the future.

This eclectic, wide-ranging anthology of essays, art, poetry, fiction, and memoir gathers distinguished contributors, from Wole Soyinka to Joyce Carol Oates

First Published in 2006.Leading planning and geography authors present this comprehensive assessment of the extent to which the physical and social make up of Western cities accommodates and nourishes the needs of children and youth. Examining the areas of planning, design, social policy, transport and housing, Creating Child Friendly Cities outlines strengths and deficiencies in the processes that govern urban development and change from the perspective of children and youth. Issues explored include children's view of the city and why this is unique; the 'obesity epidemic': is it caused by cities?; the journey to school and children's transport needs generally. With illustrations and case studies, Creating Child Friendly Cities presents planning professionals with a solid case for child-friendly cities and an action plan to create places for children to play.

More than half of all children in industrialised countries live in urban areas, and the same will be true in the developing world in the near future. Yet, by almost all indicators, cities are failing to meet the needs of young people, prejudicing their chances as adults. Written by a team of experts from the fields of urban planning, architecture, geography, anthropology, psychology and environmental education, this book analyses the results of a UNESCO project which looks at the effects on young people of their urban surroundings, based on case studies from eight countries (including Australia, India, South Africa, the UK and the USA). This study places a new emphasis on the active participation of young people in the planning, design and implementation of urban improvements, and recommends policies and practices that will make cities more responsive to the needs of children, adolescents and their families.