Vol 14, No.1 (2004)
ISSN 1546-2250
Background: Work in Progress
Sheridan Bartlett
Citation: Bartlett, Sheridan. (2004). “Background: Work in Progress” Children, Youth and Environments 14(1). Retrieved [date] from http://colorado.edu/journals/cye
In October 2005, Children, Youth and Environments will feature an issue on Children and Governance (see Call for Papers). The following papers, the outcome of a June 2004 workshop in Stockholm, will be part of this 2005 issue. They are presented here as the beginning of this “work in progress”– and as an experiment on the part of CYE.
Over the last three years, Save the Children Sweden has been developing a focus on children’s environments, and especially the environments of urban children in low-income countries. As part of their initial exploration, a number of background documents were produced.1 It quickly became apparent that effective practical attention to the living conditions of poor urban children required the involvement of local government, and constructive partnerships between local government and civil society. In 2002, SIDA, the Swedish bilateral aid agency, funded Save the Children Sweden (SCS) and UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Centre to collect examples of productive action on the part of local municipalities to improve conditions for children. Some databases were explored and case studies undertaken. The project culminated in the discussion of the following papers at the June 2004 workshop, which was attended by representatives from SCS, SIDA, several Swedish universities, and two of the researchers involved in the project. Rather than publishing these papers on its own, SCS agreed to make them available through CYE. They are presented here both as a stand-alone effort and as an initial contribution to the special issue on Children and Governance.
It is unusual to present papers in this way, before an issue actually appears. But CYE’s web-based format allows for this kind of experiment. In addition to providing access to SCS’s project, we hope that we can “prime the pump” by making these drafts available now. Ideally, this will encourage a conversation among potential contributors and result in an issue next year that will be the product not only of individual contributions, but of a conversation among contributors.
CLICK HERE if you would like to contribute
a comment or a paper on some aspect of
children and local governance
Endnote
1. Sheridan Bartlett, Children’s Rights and the Physical Environment– A Review of Current Knowledge, Save the Children Sweden, 2002; Children’s Rights from an Environmental Perspective – Implications for Action, Save the Children Sweden 2002; The Rights of the Child and the Physical Environment- Concepts and Problem definition Save the Children Sweden 2002; The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – Reporting System and the Physical Environment, Save the Children Sweden 2002. S. Bartlett and R. Hart, Children’s Environmental Rights, Save the Children Sweden 2003.