Increasing children's participation in African transport planning: reflections on methodological issues in a child-centred research project

Abstract

. (2008) 'Increasing children's participation in African transport planning : re ections on methodological issues in a child-centred research project.', Children's geographies., 6 (2). pp. 151-167. Further information on publisher's website: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. IntroductionThis paper examines the potential for applying child-centred research methodologies in West Africa within a specific transport and mobility research context. In Africa transport policy and planning is commonly a male-dominated preserve still focused principally on road building, with little attention paid to the transport needs of individual user groups, especially those of the poor and powerless (Booth et al 2000:46). The specifics of children 1 and young people's transport and mobility needs are essentially unknown and unconsidered. This is an extremely short-sighted perspective, given the fact that today's children represent Africa's future: their access to health care and education are, not surprisingly, essential components of the Millennium Development Goals (Fay et al. 2005). Moreover, children of 6 years and above often make a substantial contribution to current household production and survival strategies.Although transport does not figure directly in the Millennium Development Goals, transport improvements are essential to their achievement. If African countries are to meet the MDGs, it is clear that issues concerning children's mobility and transport will have to be addressed more directly. This requires both information on children's needs, and commitment from policy makers and practitioners to addressing them. Our paper focuses principally on the former component -information gathering and analysis -drawing on our experience in a small child-centred pilot study in Ghana to reflect on the potential for children and young people to participate in the process of social research in Africa. It is written specifically from an academic researcher perspective and raises issues about the collaborative process and the role of place and context in participatory research which have relevance to wider debates regarding the practices of participation in the Social Sciences.Children's participation and the development of child-centred research methodologies Much so-called child-centred academic research is actually conducted by adult researchers who work in a participatory way with child respondents i.e. children are consulted to ascertain their views (for instance, through in-depth interviews) but do not actively particip...

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