Breaking the Boundaries: The right of children and young people to be active participants in constructing rural and regional communities

Abstract

A child friendly city is a city that includes children in all aspects of the planning and governance of a city. But if the global child friendly city movement has gained little traction in urban areas of Australia, then there seems little hope for children and young people in non-urban Australia. Yet, perhaps ironically, the only UNESCO accredited child friendly city in Australia is the regional Victorian city of Bendigo. This might suggest that regional communities that are built upon local networks might actually embrace the notion of inclusion of children in all aspects of the planning of their communities. Yet how then do we explain that other regional and rural centres in Australia have not pursued becoming child friendly cities? In part this can be explained by Australian perceptions of rural and regional youth as 'disadvantaged' or eager to leave such communities. Such labels suggest that children and young people have little ability or stake in such communities and so little to contribute. It is also possible that those with power in rural and regional communities tend to impose their own boundaries on who are worthy of being contributors to the planning and governance of those communities. In their paradigm children and young people may be the subjects of schooling, skilling and employment debates but they do not possess a right to a share of the power in such communities. This paper explores the boundaries of children's rights to actively participate in the construction of rural and regional life and how official discourses have inhibited such rights in regional and rural Australia.