A Game to Support Children's Participation in Urban Planning

"Stadsbyggarna" is a physical board game developed at the University of Skövde to help children grasp urban planning and to bring their perspectives into citizen dialogue. Its central thesis is that a carefully designed, non-competitive game can make the trade-offs of city development accessible to young people and channel their reasoning into public planning conversations. The game was tested in a mid-sized Swedish city during a 2019 dialogue month for a 30-year city plan, with nineteen school classes aged 8 to 18 taking part.

The evaluation found that the game reliably sparked lively, politically tinged discussion. Younger and older groups engaged readily, while mid-teens were more reluctant to adopt role-play. Children's arguments centred on child-oriented concerns and environmental stewardship, such as densifying housing to protect surrounding nature, suggesting the game captured core planning trade-offs. Design choices reinforced this aim: the game avoids winning, losing, and scoring in favour of cooperation and negotiation, and it separates the planning phase from the execution phase of urban development.

A notable finding concerns the digital component. Originally planned, it was dropped after playtesting showed players preferred the physical board. Removing it simplified sessions by eliminating network and hardware risks without diminishing engagement, a result the authors read as evidence that the novelty effect of digital tools is fading. The role-play format asks children to adopt assigned institutional roles while remaining themselves, which supported personal expression but sometimes left them unsure which standpoint to argue from.

The authors also report that teachers observed discussions continuing in class after sessions ended, indicating the game can sustain dialogue beyond its immediate use. They situate these findings within Sweden's 2020 legal adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which they argue increases demand for tools that support genuine child participation in planning.