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Home / Built Environment, Volume 36, Number 4

The Journey and the Destination Matter: Child-Friendly Cities and Children's Right to the City

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Authors: Whitzman, Carolyn 1 ; Worthington, Megan 2 ; Mizrachi, Dana 1 ; 

Source: Built Environment, Volume 36, Number 4, 5 December 2010, pp. 474-486(13)

Publisher: Alexandrine Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.36.4.474

A precipitous decline in the ability of children to walk, cycle, and play outdoors without adult supervision has led to increasing research and policy supporting children's independent mobility (CIM). This article analyses the role of Child-Friendly City initiatives at the local government level in Victoria, Australia, in addressing CIM. Child-Friendly Cities are a promising practice, as they focus on children's right to public space, as opposed to a more limited public health approach that stresses relative risks of traffic and abduction by strangers versus physical inactivity. However, significant barriers are found in the policies and practices of five case studies within Victoria; specifically, the difficulties in moving from the social and health planning perspective informing Child-Friendly City initiatives, towards impacts on land-use planning policies and practices.

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1: University of Melbourne. 2: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne.

Publication date: 05 December 2010

More about this publication?

  • Built Environment is published quarterly in March, June, September and December. With an emphasis on crossing disciplinary boundaries and providing global perspective, each issue focuses on a single subject of contemporary interest to practitioners, academics and students working in a wide range of disciplines. Issues are guest-edited by established international experts who not only commission contributions, but also oversee the peer-reviewing process in collaboration with the Editors.

    Subject areas include: architecture; conservation; economic development; environmental planning; health; housing; regeneration; social issues; spatial planning; sustainability; urban design; and transport. All issues include reviews of recent publications.

    The journal is abstracted in Geo Abstracts, Sage Urban Studies Abstracts, and Journal of Planning Literature, and is indexed in the Avery Index to Architectural Publications.

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