Подростки в городе: методы и технологии вовлечения в принятие решений (на примере исследования «Лестница детского участия: право детей на город, в котором они живут»)

Abstract

The movement towards participatory design of urban spaces in Russia has caused a number of legislative initiatives in this area and an appeal to the opinions of different groups of citizens, including through the creation of public councils, public hearings, etc. Children and adolescents are city residents just like adults are, so they should have the opportunity to express their opinions on various urban processes, as well as be involved in planning, improvement, and assessment of the urban environment. Unique socio-psychological characteristics of adolescence— a focus on socially useful activities, shaping sustainable interests, exploring the urban area and self-identification—force adults to look for new methods and technologies to involve young citizens in solving issues related to the city. A participatory approach involves turning to the knowledge and experience of children as an important resource for urban development. In this area, a careful selection of age-appropriate research methods and technologies is required. The article provides an overview of methods for studying the opinions of adolescents about the city and the technologies for involving them into urban processes and shaping them as active citizens. The data used for the analysis was obtained in the course of the study “Ladder of child participation: the right of children to the city in which they live”. Three groups of methods and technologies are conditionally identified and described: academic research methods (their task is to identify the adolescent’s opinion about the city, its problems, risks and resources), methods facilitating expression by adolescents (their task is to stimulate the social activity of the adolescents and help them develop a reasoned position in relation to urban processes) and teaching technologies (their task is to strengthen the adolescents’ subjective position, training the appropriate skills).