Research On Children Participation In Urban Community Development Planning

Since the United Nations enacted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989,the issue of children's public participation has attracted worldwide attention.National governments,international organizations,local governments and civil society groups have done a lot of work for the realization of children's participation rights,but there are still many problems.Participatory approach is a concept and method developed in the late 20 th century that advocates public participation at the community level.The core idea is that the participants can actively participate in the whole process of a project,so as to realize fair interests and right of development.By sorting out and analyzing previous works,the present paper concludes that children have such problems in the field of public participation as low degree of participation,uneven level of participation and insufficient space for participation.From the perspectives of participatory development and empowerment,Z street of Beijing introduced "block responsibility planner" and carried out children participatory planning project in front of the gate of S primary school.Social workers,as the "experts" of children's participation,took part in the activity to promote children's public participation and the implementation of the project.Researchers entered into the research field as participants in the activity,and analyzed children's participation in the participatory planning project of urban community by means of participatory observation and content analysis.It has been proved that participatory planning promoted children's ability and confidence to participate in public affairs and cultivated their sense of participation through a series of measures of "empowerment".In addition,in the process of participation,participatory planning has driven diversified community governance and enabled children to obtain fair opportunities to participate,realizing the development of both individuals and communities.This study focuses on the theoretical and practical experience of promoting urban sustainable development with children as participants in urban planning,and summarizes the techniques and implementable paths of social work promoting children's participation.