Co-designing a shared future: how can children be a part of the reimagining of Belfast’s interfaces?

Abstract

Childhood is a period of incubation – a time of creativity and potentially limitless imagination when connections to space and place begin to form. Experiences encountered during childhood can influence us as adults. Despite the shaping influence of childhood experience, the child’s voice is all too often undervalued and ignored. Children are vulnerable to oversight in urban planning and societal decision-making, and their voice can be eroded by economic and political forces.

This research seeks to understand how children’s voices could impact planning in a divided society. It employs an ideal type typology to conduct ethnographic participatory research in four disadvantaged interface communities in Belfast. The research involved four day-long workshops in each locality, engaging the children with a range of visual and creative methods. Participants were aged 7–13 years old, with a total of 47 children taking part.

The thesis proposes the need for a theoretical phase termed ‘childrenship’ as a separate category prior to ‘active citizenship’. It also advocates for a participation model that reflects the complexities of children’s lives while focusing on building their capacity through participation. The research presents findings on children’s local experiences navigating their complex neighbourhoods, achieved by eliciting their voice through diverse participatory methods. The findings highlight children’s agency, competence and urban literacy in articulating their environments, as well as how diverse, capacity-building participatory methods can better enable their voice.

By detailing children’s lived experiences in disadvantaged interface communities in Belfast, the thesis finds a high degree of commonality. Regardless of community backgrounds and spatial experiences of division, children from these neighbourhoods share similar socio-economic issues and a strong awareness of their built environments.

Date of Award	Jul 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Sponsors	UK ESRC NINE Doctoral Training Partnership
Supervisor	Neil Galway (Supervisor) & Keith McAllister (Supervisor)