The utopianism of children: An empirical study of children's neighborhood design preferences

Little is known about the environmental preferences of children. While plan ners have taught children about planning, relatively little academic resear ch has been conducted on what children can teach the discipline about plann ing. This paper summarizes the results of a survey of the planning preferen ces of 248 children in kindergarten through second grade. The content analy sis revealed a preference for land use variety and for places associated wi th activity and social interaction. Children tended to favor diversity and accessibility, as opposed ro homogeneity and privacy. Further, the children 's plans were different in terms of age and particularly in terms of gender . Children were able ro conceptualize neighborhood even at the kindergarten level, and many of their conceptualizations were not dissimilar from the t raditional view of neighborhood espoused by planners.