What is a socially just community from children's perspectives? : using digital mapping children, living in a disadvantaged community, identify and inform their local government authority of their viewpoints

![CDATA[Traditionally adults make decisions about socially just environments for children. Children, particularly hard to reach children, are usually not heard. In this paper we draw on an innovative methodology, digital mapping, to facilitate children living in a disadvantaged area of greater Western Sydney to express their viewpoints about what a socially just community environment would look like from their perspective. Seventy-five children, 7-12 years from local schools used digital mapping to share power and responsibility with local authority decision-makers to co-design a safe, healthy environment from children’s perspectives. Explaining the community spaces they selected in terms of their significance for children's respect, autonomy, identifications, safety, social and cultural meanings, they uploaded images of their creative work, pinpointing the location onto a digital map, to portray what is essential for them in their community and to advocate for social justice. The digital map provides a sustainable platform on which more social and political links can be built by children. We conclude that digital mapping is one means of amplifying the voices of hard-to-reach children to engage directly in place-based change grounded in children's understandings of otherwise invisible socio-spatial processes underpinning and reproducing social differences.]]