Urban greenspace quandaries: Can systems thinking offer any solutions?

Abstract

Public urban greenspace provides myriad benefits, including health and wellbeing, 'community cohesion… and local economic growth' (House of Commons, 2017: 3). As other 'Third Place' (Oldenburg, 1989) types, including leisure centres (Conn, 2015), have closed, greenspace's popularity continues to increase (Heritage Lottery Fund, 2014). Yet, public sector funding cuts (Stuckler et al, 2017) have forced local authority prioritisation of statutory services (Dickinson and Marson, 2017). Resulting reliance on the voluntary sector is leading to geographical inequalities in greenspace provision (Molin and van den Bosch, 2014). This shift in policy-focus and funding-allocation, and consequent community-responsibilisation for greenspace 'place-keeping' (Mathers et al, 2015: 126) means that neglected greenspaces face a 'vicious circle of decline' (House of Commons, 2017: 31) and could lead to the production of 'contested spaces' (Barker et al, 2017: i). Whilst the systemic notion of boundary critique (Churchman, 1970; Ulrich, 1996) has been applied within other contexts, this case study seeks to contribute to the literature by applying boundary critique as a methodology for developing a more holistic understanding of greenspace management, and offering solutions to the quandaries faced.