Nearby nature in lockdown: Practices and affordances for leisure in urban green spaces

ABSTRACT

During the Covid-19 pandemic, urban green spaces provided a route to connect with everyday ‘nearby natures’. The paper explores the reconfiguration of leisure practices during restrictions, utilising theory on affordances and social practices to explore what people valued in urban green spaces and what can be learnt from a period when relationships with these spaces were in sharp focus. The study participants utilised Mobile Instant Messaging Diaries to present their lived experiences first-hand. Participants developed routines that involved engaging with urban green spaces as part of their daily structure, and this brought practices based around meaningful actions in these spaces to the fore. Urban green spaces became meaningful when they served a purpose, when they built knowledge and skill, and when they supported social needs. During lockdown, a patchwork of urban green spaces became useful. The findings call for more attention to be paid to small pockets of urban green space to afford nature connectivity and to the value of a social practice lens as a tool for providers to explore affordances and exclusions.

KEYWORDS:

• Nearby nature
• urban green space
• affordances
• social practices
• nature connectivity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. SANG stands for Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace created as part of new housing developments in the UK.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katherine King

Katherine King is a Senior Academic in teh Department for Sport and Event Management. Her research interests focus on the geographies of sport and leisue, in particular the inter connections between identities, lifestyles and green space.

Prof. Janet Dickinson is based within the Business School where her research focuses on transport, mobile technology, tourism and leisure. Her funded research has been instrumental in developing the concept of slow travel, and more recently analysed mobile enabled collaborative communities.