Purpose: Today’s society is exposed to an increasing need of sustainable development. It’s easy to forget that urban planning is a matter that concerns children and younger people at least as much as everyone else which makes it even more important to find methods in order to include their perspectives in planning our cities, especially now when the Convention on the Rights of the Child has become law in Sweden. To involve the opinions and experiences of children with the physical planning could improve the social sustainability and development of our societies. A safe and pleasant environment for a child is a safe and pleasant environment for everyone. The purpose of this thesis is to compare, discuss and illustrate methods to promote and take advantage of children’s perspective in the urban planning, supported by a checklist from Göteborgs stad.

Method: This paper is a qualitative study based on case studies made on two different areas in two different cities of Sweden. The chosen methods in the case studies are interviews, observations and document analysis. Due to a literature study, the understanding and knowledge about the subject was expanded and created a solid ground to start from. The literature study provided the possibility of making relevant interviews and gave a good look into how both municipalities work with their city planning. The observations of the areas in Jönköping and Göteborg supported the work by creating an apprehension of each of the involved areas. Those two methods were strengthened by the document analysis of the two areas local plans and belonging descriptions, and all together they produced relevant data in order to use the checklist, answer the issues and fulfil the goal.

Findings: It is shown that both municipalities are involving the children’s perspective in their methods of urban planning, but in different ways. Göteborg use their checklist as a method and Jönköping are doing analytical descriptions of the consequences. Still, the need to expand and spread the knowledge and competence remains in order to continue the development and growing pace that many cities are going through. The promotion of the perspective in the physical planning provides a possibility of increased social sustainability, though there might be a problem that it doesn’t get the proper attention due to the lack of knowledge and understanding that occurs.

Implications: It could be of great use to involve and emphasize the experiences and opinions of the children in urban planning for the social sustainability and development of a city. To implement strategic work and establish a checklist similar to the one in this study might be methods that can contribute to positive premises in order to trace the Convention on the Rights of the Child from an early stage through the planning process.

Limitations: The content of this thesis is limited to analysing only two different areas in two different cities of Sweden. Though, the choices of methods and the strategy of the study in combination with the various conditions of the areas are making the results possible to relate to other municipalities as well.

Keywords: urban planning, social sustainability, convention on the rights of the child, children’s perspective.