Qi, J. orcid.org/0000-0002-2002-1541, Mazumdar, S. and Vasconcelos, A.C. (2024) Understanding the relationship between urban public space and social cohesion: a systematic review. International Journal of Community Well-Being, 7 (2). pp. 155-212. ISSN 2524-5295
Abstract
Public space serves as opportunities for everyday engagement including cultural activities and social interactions. The co-presence of diverse groups and activities is seen as an important building block of social cohesion. This review synthesised the empirical evidence to understand the relationship between public space and social cohesion. Databases searched included Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed with the inclusion of peer reviewed articles published in English, between 2000 and 2023 (till 22nd February 2023). A total of 63 published studies were identified. A variety of physical aspects of different public spaces was found to potentially encourage social interaction and cohesion, i.e., accessibility, mixed land use, presence of street furniture, etc. Furthermore, such impact was found to be affected by a range of sociodemographic factors, for example ethnicity, age, and length of residence, and perceptual factors such as safety perception, visual perceptions, and place attachment. Overall, research exploring the relationship between public space and social cohesion has occurred within disciplinary silos, posing a significant challenge in conceptualising this relationship. The recognition of these findings bridges the research effort in understanding the social mechanism between people and space across research agendas including urban design and planning, sociology, environmental psychology, public health, and human geography. We describe future work in studying the intangible aspects of urban space in the directions of assessing the social performance of public space and devising interventions to promote social interaction and foster social cohesion.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Public space; Social interaction; Social cohesion; Sense of community; Place attachment; Systematic literature review |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Information School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 19 Mar 2024 12:06 |
Last Modified: | 29 Jul 2024 21:26 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s42413-024-00204-5 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:210386 |