5. The municipality has a particular responsibility to ensure the
active participation of groups that require special
arrangements , including children and adolescents.
The Norwegian Planning and Building Act § 5-1
6. Kid’s Tracks: A method for children and youth
to participate in planning processes
7. 1
Children register how they
use their neighborhood
2
Results in mappings which
can be used in planning
processes
3
The children learn about
democracy, responsibility
and participation
14. Why is participation
sometimes difficult?
• A duty, not a resource
• Processes do not capture
the general opinions of
the public
• Difficult to create
commitment
15. Why is participation
sometimes difficult?
• Difficult for residents to
have an overview of the
planning process
• Difficult for the
municipality to turn
public contributions in
to specific plans
25. …I wish Ski could have a nice
park in the middle of the city, a
place where we can meet after
school….
…I want to live in a city…
…Less roads and trafikk in Ski…
31. …This pier must be repaired,
boats have been destroyed …
… Only a few people come
down to the seaside – it
should have been a lot more
…
… Here it's pretty great in
summertime but it starts to
become quite old and one
should fix the piers ….
33. “We changed the discussion from "car and trade” to "meetingplaces, culture, trade and
pedestrains". Then I think something important actually happened …”
TorillValderhaug, project manager Kid’sTracks, Giske
INTRO
My name is Ingvil Hegna, thank you for inviting me.
I am senior adviser at DOGA, and educated as an architect from Oslo school of Architecture. I have also continuing education within community- and spatial planning.
Before I started In DOGA three years ago, I worked as an adviser at the county of Oppland for 8 years, and before that I practiced as an architect for 10 years in housing and other architectural projects.
DOGA is the National centre for architecture and design, and we are a foundation under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. INTRO
My name is Ingvil Hegna, thank you for inviting me.
I am senior adviser at DOGA, and educated as an architect from Oslo school of Architecture. I have also continuing education within community- and spatial planning. Before I started In DOGA three years ago, I worked as an adviser in the county of Oppland for 8 years, and before that I practiced as an architect for 10 years in housing and other architectural projects.
DOGA has been working with children in the city as a topic for many years and we have investigated in how they can play an active role in city-planning.
The last couple of years DOGA has been working more actively on the tools and methods to involve children in the planning prosess.
UTSTILLINGEN «Barn ingen adgang”,
Film---
This film shows the exhibition “Barn ingen adgang”, a result of the last year work with pilot-projects testing out the tool called “Kid’s tracks”. The exhibition is now travelling around Norway - .
One of the findings we did working with the Kid’s tracks- project, was that most people don’t understand the planning prosess - which is crucial to get involved.
- when can I participate: And what can I actually mean something about? And what can I expect from participation?
The exhibition explains a complicated prosess in a simple way –
ACCORDING TO LAW
Law
The Norwegian law of planning, say that the municipalities shall make sure that all inhabitants participate in planning-prosesses, also children. Still the majority of Norwegian municipalities lack knowledge about children’s needs and wishes, and how they use the environment.
UN’s Childrens right, article 12, also say that children in particular shall be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child.
How we plan the city, is of great importance for the children’s future, and their voice must be heard –Doing Kids’ tracks can make that happen!
Norwegian Law
According to the Planning and Building Act § 5-1 about participation, states that the municipality has a particular responsibility to ensure the active participation of groups that require special arrangements , including children and adolescents.
Convention of the rights of the child, Article 12
FACTS about Kid’s Tracks:
Developed by DOGA in 2005, revitalized and launched in 2014 -
A method for children and youth to participate in planning processes
Children registrate how they use their neighborhood
The results are mappings which can be used in planning processes
Learning democracy and supporting responsibility skills and participation
Target group are Norwegian schools and municipalities
FACTS about Kid’s Tracks:
Developed by DOGA in 2005, revitalized and launched in 2014 -
A method for children and youth to participate in planning processes
Children registrate how they use their neighborhood
The results are mappings which can be used in planning processes
Learning democracy and supporting responsibility skills and participation
Target group are Norwegian schools and municipalities
In participation with eg Denmark, Norway has a democratic culture that is less based on participant democratic principles.
In Norway we hold the principles of a more representative democracy and trust the politicians to make good descisions , and is less concerned to facilitate participant democratic arrangements.
At the same time, since 1985, we allowed private plans (submitted plans) and today most detailed plans are initiated and controlled and negotiated by private developers, - to a greater extent then eg Denmark.
This is a challenge in how we traditionally involve the citizens. We don’t have the competence nor the experience in how to fasiliate the prosess or how to use the knowledge from participation into urban development.
In participation with eg Denmark, Norway has a democratic culture that is less based on participant democratic principles.
In Norway we hold the principles of a more representative democracy and trust the politicians to make good descisions , and is less concerned to facilitate participant democratic arrangements.
At the same time, since 1985, we allowed private plans (submitted plans) and today most detailed plans are initiated and controlled and negotiated by private developers, - to a greater extent then eg Denmark.
This is a challenge in how we traditionally involve the citizens. We don’t have the competence nor the experience in how to fasiliate the prosess or how to use the knowledge from participation into urban development.
Participation works!
What I want to show in this presentation, is that participation works, and I will present three proofs of this.
Three very different municipalities participated in the pilot project for implementation of Kid’s Tracks.
Ski – Giske – Bodø
The reason we wanted to test the method thoroughly, was that didn’t know if the registration done through Kid’s tracks had real impact on the outcome in the plans and projects or
if it had – in what way? And if not – why not?
The municipalities had to fulfill some criterias to be part of the project:
Do the Kid’s tracks-registration
Work interdisciplinary within the municipality
Anchoring the method internally with the leadership
Give us access to the prosess, in order to investigate how they took the registration further into the prosess.
Ensure implementation of the results
They also had to Identify and establish routine and work-method- and develop and improve the planning tools they already had to ensure good outdoor spaces and environments for children and youth.
The project was done in cooperation with NIBR – the Norwegian Isntitute for Urban and Regional Research by the scientist Gro Sandkjær Hansen and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences with the professo Kine Thorèn and associate profosser Phd Deni Ruggeri (NMBU). Their masterstudents worked in the pilot-municipalities, in project called: “The urban landscape as a social arena”.
The following presentation is a summery of the work done by Ski, Giske, Bodø, the University and the Science institute together with DOGA.
Example from Ski:
Density as opportunity for a more livable public realm
30 000 inhabitants
Ski municipality is located about 30 min by train south of Oslo. It is growing fast and like all city-centre there is a demand for densification.
A newly adopted city- center-plan - strongly supported by the mayor and chief administrative officer management team - said that children and young people's interests shall make premise for academic studies.
With the demand from the mayor concerning childrens interests, the city-centre had to be more attractive for families with children.
Ski saw the opportunity to get the children’s views through Kids tracks
Example from Ski – 30.000 inhabitants:
Density as opportunity for a more livable public realm
A newly adopted city- center-plan - strongly supported by the mayor and chief administrative officer management team - said that children and young people's interests shall make premise for academic studies.
Ski municipality is located close to Oslo, and is growing fast. The city-centre is small and there is a demand for densification like in all cities.
With the demand from the mayor concerning childrens interests, the city-centre had to be more attractive for families with children. Ski saw the opportunity to get the children’s views through Kids tracks.
Children are competent and have opinions of their surroundings and neighborhood – they have the expert-knowledge.
and their opinions is very often similar to the needs of everybody –where the children bloom everybody blooms!
Describe from the drawing/map
The registration confirmed that the city-centre was occupied by cars, not people.
The most used space by people, was concentrated inside the big shopping-centre, and very little activity elsewhere.
The red spots indicates danger / barriers – and you can lots of it. Problems with access to the citycentre, is most likely relevant for all the inhabitants, not only the children.
Findings also said that children like to use the city-centre, but they didn’t feel safe and there where only few places they could meet – the shopping-centre was the most popular.
The result is that the municipality now involve children and youths in the planning of the city – they have made workshops and invited them to suggest how to develop the citycentre.
The result is that the municipality now involve children and youths in the planning of the city – they have made workshops and invited them to suggest how to develop the citycentre.
Participation works!
What I want to show in this presentation, is that participation works, and I will present three proofs of this.
Gaining the deep understanding of the place
In some of the Norwegian towns and places the lack of identity is becoming a problem, like in other countries as well.
With more rational development – building faster and cheaper- the houses very often becomes a repetition of certain building-types, materials and surroundings, and doesn’t relate to the unique values that can be found in these places. It all looks the same.
Doing Kid’s track can be a source to identify important areas, problematic or with potentials that should be investigated and analyzed further. Doing the registration is not empowerment in itself but a tool to get local understanding of the place, which can be of great value in developing a plan and a project – it’s about building on existing identity and knowledge.
Example from Giske – 8000 inhabitants
Strengthening identity through meeting places in nature
Giske municipality consist of four islands at the west coast of Norway. It’s located near the bigger town Ålesund and is popular place for families to live – it’s growing very fast – and the pressure in housing-developement is high.Coming from the outside – it is a beautiful place - the sea end the mountain meet and you feel that the people are very connected to the nature and the community.
The adopted society-plan emphasis good conditions for children and adolescents, and promote good health.
In spite of beautiful nature everywhere, the Kid’s tracks showed that the children didn’t use neither the mountains nor the seaside. Places where there always had been lots of activity, the children no longer used – not alone, not with their parents or friends.
The registration showed that paths where overgrown and there where lots of garbage, which made it unpleasant to walk.
The students saw a big potential to emphasize the strong character of the place – and get better access to the seaside and nature.
And the municipality discovered new potential in developing good recreation-areas for the inhabitants, to get people out and meet each other.
Importance of public speaking and storytelling
This project has shown that there is a need for better fasiliating-tools- and methods which can inspire and communicate complex ideas in creative ways.
The students participation and work in the classroom with the children, and how they dealt with the findings and suggestions in concrete, ideas was an important and inspiring part of the project.
Based on the kid’s tracks and together with the local children, the students developed new ways of collaboration and leadership-building, which strengthened the arguments and ideas from the kids tracks – to the municipalities – and to the politicians.
Our experience with the students work made us aware of how important this is. Washing of data and analyze the findings is crucial to the outcome of participation-prosess. This competence is missing, both in the municipalities, by the developers and within the academics (sad to say - especially architects).
Changed views and perpectives
For many years, there has been a big discussion where to put the municipal senter.
Based on Kid’s tracks and existing qualities – students introduces new aspects of what the new city center should be. This changesd the discussion witch hopefully will lead to a decision in the future based on more holistic grounds.
CASE Bodø
50 500 inhabitants
Getting people out: activating the landscape and building community
Kids’ tracks and other participation-tools was quite premature to Bodø, but they saw this project as a great opportunity to identify areas and paths that children used – as a basis for plan the blue and green infrastructure.
They established a cross - professional team and got acceptance from the leadership to use results from Kids tracks as a reference in this particular plan.
The Kid’s tracks revealed some areas where the children didn’t go. – And some of these areas where places which needed activity – near the city-centre and housing-areas.
CASE Bodø – 55.500 inhabitants
Getting people out: activating the landscape and building community
Kids’ tracks and other participation-tools was quite premature to Bodø, but they saw this project as a great opportunity to identify areas and paths that children used – as a basis for plan the blue and green infrastructure.
They established a cross - professional team and got acceptance from the leadership to use results from Kids tracks as a reference in this particular plan.
The Kid’s tracks revealed some areas where the children didn’t go. – And some of these areas where places which needed activity – near the city-centre and housing-areas.
The Kid’s tracks is being used as a basis to plan the new green infrastructure.
Registrations will be used in municipal planning and building permits, as well as be implemented and part of the teaching in schools and in municipal public health.
Bodø municipality will do the Kids tracks as a regular registration method for children and young people opinions and views of urban and municipal development.
In addition, registrations will be made available in the municipal map service and through a process report and a financial report.
The most positive result in the Bodø-case, is that the municipality now want to strengthen the involvement in the future. They see how peoples use and opinions of the environment can be of concrete use an basis for developing the city-centre.
Lesson 2
Doing participation makes new way of thinking and put focus on social values
and quality of life.
Lesson 2
Doing participation makes new way of thinking and put focus on social values
and quality of life.