Children Generating Knowledge: A Participatory Method for Child-Led Analysis in City Design

This study advances participatory qualitative inquiry by engaging children as co-researchers in analyzing data about urban life and city design. Grounded in participatory action research and a mosaic approach, the project drew on the 7th Report on Childhood and Adolescence in (2021–2023) to construct a multimodal corpus combining children’s verbal accounts, visual and cartographic artifacts, and self-generated analytical categories. Through a staged analytic process – curation, participatory synthesis, and consolidation – children collaboratively interpreted information, generated thematic categories, and prioritized feasible proposals for more child-friendly urban environments. Their analyses produced conceptually rich and actionable insights, emphasizing spatial concerns (mobility, accessibility, safety), relational-ecological dimensions (networks of care, intergenerational uses of space), and pragmatic solutions for local governance. Comparison with adult researchers’ interpretations revealed both areas of convergence and distinctive child-specific perspectives often overlooked in conventional analyses. The study presents a transferable, ethically grounded framework that enhances children’s interpretive agency, strengthens the authenticity of qualitative findings, and informs policies for inclusive and sustainable cities. Guidance is provided for researchers and institutions seeking to legitimize and integrate children’s analytical contributions within participatory knowledge generation.