Dobson, J. orcid.org/0000-0002-6164-2707 and Dempsey, N. orcid.org/0000-0001-6642-8673 (2019) Working out what works : the role of tacit knowledge where urban greenspace research, policy and practice intersect. Sustainability, 11 (18). p. 5029.
Abstract
Policymakers and practitioners working in urban greenspace management want to know what kind of interventions are effective in promoting mental wellbeing. In practice, however, they rely on multiple forms of knowledge, often in unwritten form. This paper considers how such knowledge is interpreted and used by a range of stakeholders to identify greenspace interventions to support residents’ health and wellbeing in one UK city. It examines the interface between academic research, policy and practice, drawing on the findings of a three-year study in Sheffield, UK. The Improving Wellbeing through the Urban Nature project investigated the links between ‘urban nature’ and mental health. One strand of the research sought to influence policy and practice, and this article presents findings and reflects on some of the processes of this exercise. It highlights the role of tacit knowledge in practice and its influence on practitioners’ choice of greenspace interventions and the challenges in drawing on such knowledge to influence policy. The findings affirm practice-based knowledge as socially situated, interpretively fashioned and politically weighted. This paper concludes by demonstrating the importance of considering the local context when devising policy prescriptions for greenspace provision and management.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 The Authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | urban greenspace; parks; governance; tacit knowledge; good practice; wellbeing; greenspace management; Sheffield |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Landscape Architecture (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 16 Oct 2019 13:24 |
Last Modified: | 16 Oct 2019 13:24 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/su11185029 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:151661 |