Children and Young People in Changing Urban Environments in the Majority World

Children and young people’s everyday lives in changing urban environments are the focus of this chapter. It prompts researchers and those working in the context of shifting urban spaces in the majority world to consider children’s experiences of change which are underway in their street, neighborhood, and city. Here the focus is threefold: (i) on urban remaking projects and urban renewal schemes associated with informal housing relocation and the beautification of city spaces; (ii) urban transformation, considering the lived experience of children and young people in new city developments, prompted by a neoliberal urban agenda (where the vision is for eco, smart, and sustainable living); and (iii) urban imagining, an insight into how children and young people are often at the center of these new urban visions and imaginations, where children and childhoods are used to market new urban dreams in line with the urban transformation agenda. Given the rapid pace of urban change across the majority world, there is no better time to explore the geographies of changing urban environments; how children are positioned, experiencing and negotiating such shifting landscapes needs critical attention.