TY - JOUR
T1 - Profiling attached residents in an urban community in the u.S.
T2 - An empirical study of social–landscape interactions within a park
AU - Xu, Ying
AU - Lee, Jae Ho
AU - Matarrita-Cascante, David
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - Community attachment has been studied predominantly in terms of the social dimensions of community life, which explains what makes residents feel connected to a locality. Following a more recent trend within the community attachment literature, this study examined the role of communities’ physical dimensions in fostering sentiments of rootedness and connections to communities. More specifically, the study sought to better understand the role that urban parks play in predicting community attachment using a discriminant analysis technique to profile attached residents. We selected Discovery Green Park in Houston, Texas, as the study site, where we administered 606 total surveys to park visitors inquiring about their interactions with the park itself, emotional connections to it, and social interactions within the park. We found that strongly attached residents tend to be older, have a greater reliance on the park service and programs, and have meaningful interactions with new people in the park and frequently visit the park in groups to socialize and relax. Additionally, those who are strongly attached to the community attribute greater symbolic meanings to Discovery Green and more strongly identify with the park. The profile of residents attached to the community, given their interactions with the park and its visitors, provides important knowledge to both park managers and community leaders; they can use this information to create conditions, fostering more strongly attached residents who tend to be active agents of positive change in the community.
AB - Community attachment has been studied predominantly in terms of the social dimensions of community life, which explains what makes residents feel connected to a locality. Following a more recent trend within the community attachment literature, this study examined the role of communities’ physical dimensions in fostering sentiments of rootedness and connections to communities. More specifically, the study sought to better understand the role that urban parks play in predicting community attachment using a discriminant analysis technique to profile attached residents. We selected Discovery Green Park in Houston, Texas, as the study site, where we administered 606 total surveys to park visitors inquiring about their interactions with the park itself, emotional connections to it, and social interactions within the park. We found that strongly attached residents tend to be older, have a greater reliance on the park service and programs, and have meaningful interactions with new people in the park and frequently visit the park in groups to socialize and relax. Additionally, those who are strongly attached to the community attribute greater symbolic meanings to Discovery Green and more strongly identify with the park. The profile of residents attached to the community, given their interactions with the park and its visitors, provides important knowledge to both park managers and community leaders; they can use this information to create conditions, fostering more strongly attached residents who tend to be active agents of positive change in the community.
KW - Community attachment
KW - Discriminant analysis
KW - Place identity
KW - Urban community
KW - Urban parks
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121731281&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/socsci11010005
DO - 10.3390/socsci11010005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85121731281
SN - 2076-0760
VL - 11
JO - Social Sciences
JF - Social Sciences
IS - 1
M1 - 5
ER -