Inclusive spaces for future generations: Co-producing urban spaces and plans with children and young people from ethnic minority communities in Cardiff
This project offers an exciting opportunity to work at the interface between the everyday lives of excluded children and young people, those who make decisions at the city level, and more widely.
The research will work directly with children and young people from ethnic minority and disadvantaged backgrounds to understand how they can better influence neighbourhood and city planning in Cardiff. It will develop creative methods to engage with children and young people (e.g., creative neighbourhood mapping), so that they can directly influence the decisions made by Cardiff Council.
The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work with the Child Friendly Cities Team of Cardiff Council (under the UNICEF Child Friendly Cities Programme), gaining invaluable experience of embedding research in practice, policy working at the council level, and the wider functionings of local government with a specific focus on urban planning. Significantly, they’ll make an important contribution to how disadvantaged and excluded children and young people can have a stronger voice in their own neighbourhoods.
Summary
Children and young people from ethnic minority and disadvantaged communities are poorly served by existing urban public spaces, and are largely excluded from their design and ongoing development1,2. There are few existing mechanisms for children and young people from diverse backgrounds to contribute to the co-design of public space, or to have their opinions and needs listened to by authorities3,4. This project will directly address this need, developing novel methodologies with children and young people from diverse backgrounds in two contrasting neighbourhoods in Cardiff that are high on the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (e.g., Butetown, Adamsdown, Ely). It will build on existing work by the supervisory team in Grangetown, where creative methods have been piloted with children and young people to generate a child-led, co-produced neighbourhood plan.
Existing evidence shows that ethnic minority communities, including refugees and asylum seekers, experience urban public spaces differently to majority groups, and can face significant exclusions5. This project will contribute to this developing field, expanding knowledge to understand children and young people’s experiences and challenges, whilst also generating practical impact through the co-production of neighbourhood plans and actions.
Aims
- To understand the needs of ethnic minority and disadvantaged children and young people and identify barriers and challenges to their participation in neighbourhood planning.
- To develop and evaluate creative methods with children and young people to co-produce child- and youth-friendly neighbourhood plans that can be actioned by Cardiff Council.
- Working with the Child Friendly Cities Team of Cardiff Council, to understand wider structural barriers for children and young people’s representation at the city level and develop methods for children and young people to be directly represented in urban planning.
Professional development and training opportunities
The successful candidate will be work closely with the Cardiff Council Child Friendly Cities Team during the entirety of the project. In addition, they'll spend six months on placement with the Child Friendly Cities Team, under the supervision of Lee Patterson, the Child Friendly Cities Programme Coordinator. They’ll be hosted at Cardiff University’s Social Science Research Park, where the Child Friendly Cities (CFC) Team is based and will work with the team at the interface between work at the City Council level and academic research. The placement and partnership working will provide invaluable experience of embedding research in practice, policy working at the council level, and the wider functioning of local government with a specific focus on urban planning. In addition, the candidate will gain insight of the Child Friendly Cities framework, under UNICEF UK, and engage with other CFC teams across the UK.
References
- Natural England. (2019). Monitor of engagement with the natural environment: Children and young people report.
- Boyd, F., White, M. P., Bell, S. L., & Burt, J. (2018). Who doesn’t visit natural environments for recreation and why. Landscape and Urban Planning, 175, 102–113.
- Rishbeth, C. (2001). Ethnic minority groups and the design of public open space: An inclusive landscape? Landscape Research, 26 (4), 351–366.
- Rishbeth, C., Blachnicka-Ciacek, D., & Darling, J. (2019). Participation and wellbeing in urban greenspace: ‘Curating sociability’ for refugees and asylum seekers. Geoforum, 106 , 125–134.
- Birch, J., Rishbeth, C., & Payne, S. R. (2020). Nature doesn’t judge you– how urban nature supports young people’s mental health and wellbeing in a diverse UK city. Health & Place, 62, 102296.
