Find out more about the project, click here, and read an extract below.
The “Children's city”was born in Fano in May 1991 from the idea of Francesco Tonucci, with a specific political objective: to promote a change in the parameters of city government, starting from the child instead of the adult. Children play an active role in the process of change, concretely participating in the government and design of the city and regaining possession of urban space. The project's natural interlocutor is the town mayor, as all sectors of the administration are involved.
The proposal: a new parameter
Asking local administrators, and mayors in particular, to use the child rather than the adult as the parameter for governing the city, means trying to halt the process of degeneration affecting the urban context. It means adopting a different, forward-looking vision of the priorities of administrative policy choices. Moving from a management approach that favors the car to one that favors pedestrians means redeveloping the city from every point of view.
To be effective, this process must be based not only on the consensus of citizens, but also on their participation. participation active. The city's children are the real actors of change. They are involved in active participation, so that this process is not limited to the logic of automobile traffic (Ariès, 1996). Children are called upon to participate, as required by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), which establishes their right to express opinions on decisions that concern them (article 12) and their right to be heard because their opinion is important to everyone.
The reappropriation of the urban environment, the recovery of different forms of play and autonomous movement in the city are essential not only for the healthy child development but above all for a better development of the city itself.
In practice
The cities' support for the project is given personally by the mayor and confirmed by a decision of the city council. Joining the project has no economic cost, but represents the political will to commit to respecting children and changing the city.
→ How to join the project (Italian version)
→ How to join the project (Spanish version)
Learn more
→ United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
→ United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child - Children's version
