Enhancing urban transformative capacity through children’s participation in planning

This paper presents a perspective we find lacking in the general discussion on urban transformative capacity, as well as the discourse on children’s environmental experiences and their participation in urban planning processes. Children contribute to the building of urban transformative capacity in several ways. Firstly, they contribute with new perspectives on the environment that broaden existing perspectives on human–environment relations in urban planning. Secondly, children’s participation in planning processes challenges existing power relations through the creation of new adult–child relationships which in turn transform relations between adults and other actors and agencies. Thirdly, their participation requires changes in planning practices and the establishment of new routines in order to plan cities which meet the needs of children.