Engaging the unengaged: Understanding residents’ perceptions of social access to urban public space

[Display omitted] •Social access to parks should be considered in addition to physical access.•A park in one neighborhood may not function the same as a similar park elsewhere.•Perceptions of familiar urban spaces depend upon their spatio-temporal context.•Evaluative methods may not fully capture diverse perceptions of familiar urban spaces. Social access to urban parks is an understudied phenomenon encompassing the interplay between the physical conditions of urban neighborhoods and green space with the socio-cultural and historical relationships urban residents have developed with these familiar places. Understanding social access can help inform planners and designers who would like to ensure that measures taken to increase investment in and proximity to urban green space also result in increasing use of that green space by neighboring community members – a key premise in achieving intended benefits such as improved health and well-being. This study uses selected ethnographic field methods supplemented with semi-structured interviews to advance the concept of social access. In-depth narratives are shared to demonstrate the nuanced ways in which urban residents construct meaning in nearby urban green space and how that influences their perception and use of these places. The paper outlines the key dimensions of social access – people, activities, novelty, and ability – as well as five underlying historical and socio-cultural narratives used to describe these dimensions. The thorough documentation of the complexity inherent in social access suggests increased attention from researchers, designers, and planners is warranted to a) expand notion of access to urban green space beyond proximity, such as incorporating programming and cultural identity and b) support efforts to use innovative community engagement strategies beyond traditional evaluative methods (e.g. visual preference) to capture the layers of perspective held by urban residents.