46 Growing Up in Cities is a broad-based international research initiative that revisits and extends a project, conceived in 1970, that examined the ways in which children use and perceive the environments that shape their lives. The original project, directed by urban designer Kevin Lynch and funded by UNESCO, involved research in four countries and resulted in Growing Up in Cities, a classic in child-environment literature for both its methods and findings. Lynch found remarkable agreement among children, across cultures and urban contexts, as to what constituted a superior environment. Children were most satisfied when their worlds were defined by strong and inclusive cultural frameworks, and when they were free to explore the physical environment without fear of physical harm. In 1994 environmental psychologist Louise Chawla, a professor at Kentucky State University, proposed revisiting Lynch’s work in order to address two of its unfulfilled goals: improving urban design through participatory projects with children and informing local and national policy with regard to the needs of children in cities. By May 2002, again with primary sponsorship from UNESCO, the revived Growing Up in Cities project had studied urban quality and children’s priorities for change in more than a dozen countries. In most respects, it found that Lynch’s conclusions remained remarkably valid. However, a key feature of the effort this time around has been to try to use the very activity of research to build participatory social networks and political coalitions to bring the needs of children to more popular attention. In presenting a research award to Growing up in Cities, jurors were particularly excited by its ability to move beyond the accomplishments of the earlier effort.