Public space has become a scarce resource within cities. Citizens, both individually and in groups, policy makers, planners, project developers, pressing groups, etc. all try to make different claims to the urban environment. Spaces and places within the city are being appropriated, and public spaces are increasingly being transformed into private or commercial spaces. The ‘right to the city’ and the right to the appropriation and production of urban spaces is primarily based on the particular spatial claims of the higher educated, white, adult man which are accepted as more legitimate than those of other groups in the city (Lefebvre, 1968; Mitchell, 2003). Children – as a social group – often lack the power to have a political influence on the production of space, and also within this age group inequalities exist in terms of gender, economical status, ethnical background, etc.

The lack of direct political citizenship of children has been compensated in the past and present of urban planning by the invention of different pedagogical and governance theories to create places for children within the city: from the fenced play garden movement in the 19^th century cities (partially inspired by the ideas of Froebel), to the design of traditional and adventure playgrounds in the middle of the 20^th century, and more inclusive planning concepts such as the UN child friendly cities initiative, the educating cities movement, or Tonucci’s City of Children. Children’s own voices can be included in these plans, but within the limits of their political position within the city.

As a result, this geography of childhood in urban environments has been predominantly based on the normative question how children should be present within urban spaces, leaving less attention to the question about how children interact with the urban environment, how they are able, allowed and willing to be present in urban spaces, and how urban planning and design processes can take the perspectives of children into account.  To deal with these questions, requires a multidisciplinary dialogue that confronts pedagogical, sociological, architectural and geographical theories on living together in the city.

This symposium aims to start such a multidisciplinary dialogue about the social and pedagogical assumptions and orientations that underlie the planning and design of spaces for children within the city, and the ways in which  children are taken into account as fellow citizens, both in a social and political sense. Researchers from different disciplines and from different national contexts will discuss the following topics:

1. Children’s interactions with use of urban public spaces and their role in the production of meaning to these spaces
2. The pedagogical assumptions, orientations and effects of existing urban planning theories and projects.
3. The relationships between planning and design of urban space and educational theories on children’s citizenship.

The first part of this symposium, focusing on the social and educational aspects of children's production of space, will feature three contributions and therefore three different national perspectives: Portugal, Belgium and Denmark.