Glasgow Centre for Population Health, 94 Elmbank Street, Glasgow, G2 4DL, UK.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2010 Oct 28;7:78. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-7-78.
Greenspace has the potential to be a vital resource for promoting healthy living for people in urban areas, offering both opportunities for physical activity and wellbeing. Much research has explored the objectively measurable factors within areas to the end of explaining the role of greenspace access in continuing health inequalities. This paper explores the subjective reasons why people in urban areas choose to use, or not use, local public greenspace.
In-depth interviews with 24 people living in two areas of Glasgow, United Kingdom were conducted, supplemented with participant photography and participatory methods. Data was thematically categorised to explore subjectively experienced facilitators and barriers to greenspace use in urban areas.
From the perspective of current and potential urban greenspace users, access is revealed to be about more than the physical characteristics of neighbourhoods, greenspace resources or objectively measurable features of walkability and connectivity. Subjectively, the idea of walkability includes perceptions of social cohesion at a community level and the level of felt integration and inclusion by individuals in their communities. Individual's feelings of integration and inclusion potentially mitigate the effects of experiential barriers to urban greenspace access, such as evidence of anti-social behaviour.
We conclude that improving access to greenspace for all in urban communities will require more than providing high quality resources such as parks, footpaths, activities and lighting. Physical availability interacts with community contexts already established and a holistic understanding of access is required. A key cultural component of areas and neighbourhoods is the level of social cohesion, a factor that has the potential to reinforce existing health inequalities through shaping differentiated greenspace access between subgroups of the local population.
绿地有可能成为促进城市居民健康生活的重要资源,为人们提供体育活动和健康的机会。许多研究已经探索了区域内可客观衡量的因素,旨在解释绿地可达性在持续健康不平等中的作用。本文探讨了城市居民选择使用或不使用当地公共绿地的主观原因。
对居住在英国格拉斯哥两个地区的 24 人进行了深入访谈,并辅以参与者摄影和参与式方法。对数据进行主题分类,以探讨城市地区绿地使用的主观体验促进因素和障碍。
从当前和潜在的城市绿地使用者的角度来看,可达性不仅仅涉及邻里的物理特征、绿地资源或可步行性和连通性的客观可衡量特征。从主观上讲,可步行性的概念包括社区层面的社会凝聚力以及个人在社区中的融合感和归属感的认知。个人的融合感和归属感有可能减轻获得城市绿地的体验障碍的影响,例如反社会行为的证据。
我们的结论是,要改善城市社区所有人对绿地的可达性,仅提供高质量的资源,如公园、人行道、活动和照明是不够的。物理可达性与已经建立的社区环境相互作用,需要全面理解可达性。区域和社区的一个关键文化组成部分是社会凝聚力的水平,这一因素有可能通过塑造当地人口亚组之间不同的绿地可达性,从而加剧现有的健康不平等。