Community Building
Urban green spaces can provide a neutral space within which people come together, social interactions occur (that include people from different backgrounds), and relationships or partnerships take form. While personal goals or desires are achieved, community building and increased social capital also emerge, particularly if people share work on a project or goal.
Fast Facts
- Physical features influence social contact among neighbors, and nature plays an important role in creating vital neighborhood spaces.1
- A study in urban public housing found that the presence of well managed vegetation was very important feature in promoting the development of social ties within urban public housing.2
- People prefer natural over hardscape settings, and preferences are predictors of the use of environments. A study found that urban residents dislike and fear treeless, empty common spaces. The addition of trees and grass dramatically changed their perceptions of those spaces.2
- The presence, number, and location of trees strongly predicted the amount of time that inner-city residents actually spent in outdoor common spaces around urban public housing.3
- More social activities were observed in public housing common spaces that had trees compared to treeless spaces of the same size.4
- Older adults who have more exposure to green common spaces report a stronger sense of unity among residents within their local neighborhood, and experience a stronger sense of belonging to the neighborhood.5
- Strong community relationships may result in individuals being more likely to work together to achieve common goals (e.g., cleaner and safer public spaces), to exchange information, and to maintain informal social controls (e.g., discouraging crime or other undesirable behaviors). These situations can influence public health. Communities where residents express high mutual trust and reciprocity have been linked with lower homicide rates. Neighborhoods lacking social cohesion and community wellness conversely, have been related to social disorder and anxiety and depression.6
More information later . . . .
References
1. Sullivan,WC, FE Kuo, and S DePooter. 2004. The Fruit of Urban Nature: Vital Neighborhood Spaces. Environment and Behavior 36, 5:678-700.
2. Kuo, FE, WC Sullivan, RL Coley, and L Brunson. 1998. Fertile Ground for Community: Inner-City Neighborhood Common Spaces. American Journal of Community Psychology 26, 6: 823-851.
3. Coley, RL, FE Kuo, and WC Sullivan. 1997. Where Does Community Grow? The Social Context Created by Nature in Urban Public Housing. Environment and Behavior 29, 4:468-492.
4.Taylor, AF, A Wiley, FE Kuo, and WC Sullivan. 1998. Growing Up in the Inner City. Environment and Behavior 30, 1:3-27.
5. Kweon, BS, WC Sullivan, and R Angel. 1998. Green Common Spaces and the Social Integration of Inner-City Older Adults. Environment and Behavior 30, 6:832-858.
6. Cubbin, C, S Egerter, P Braveman, and V Pedregon. 2008. Where We Live Matters for Our Health: Neighborhoods and Health. Issue Brief 3 of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Commission to Build a Healthier America, 11 pp.
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