Community Parks, Social Interaction and Place Attachment in Master Planned Estates in Sydney, Australia

Yang, Chunyan

Community Parks, Social Interaction and Place Attachment in Master Planned Estates in Sydney, Australia

Yang, Chunyan

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2023

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Yang, Chunyan
dc.date.accessioned	2024-03-26T02:40:06Z
dc.date.available	2024-03-26T02:40:06Z
dc.date.issued	2023
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/177160
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted various aspects of people’s living experiences and their emotional connections to their environments. The growing concerns about increased social isolation in Australian cities have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an urgent need to rethink human-environment relationships, social wellbeing and place attachment in cities and neighbourhoods. However, the relationships between neighbourhood public open spaces, social interaction and place attachment are unclear in literature. Few studies have investigated social interaction, place attachment and human-environment relationships in Master Planned Estates (MPEs) in Australia. There is a need to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of public open spaces on residents’ health and wellbeing in neighbourhoods, particularly in MPEs in Australia. This study investigated the relationships between community parks, social interaction, and place attachment in MPEs in Sydney, using case study mixed methods. Two cases were selected in Sydney: Breakfast Point and Liberty Grove. In the Phase I study, a resident survey was conducted to collect quantitative data from 192 residents in the two selected MPEs during COVID-19 in 2021. In the Phase II study, semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data from 16 residents in the two selected MPEs during COVID-19 in 2022. This study found three factors significantly and positively associated with residents’ social interaction in MPEs: frequency of community park use, satisfaction with rest spaces in parks, and parks’ pedestrian connectivity with surroundings. In addition, this study found three factors significantly and positively associated with place attachment in MPEs: pedestrian accessibility to parks, parks’ pedestrian connectivity with surroundings and satisfaction with children’s playgrounds in parks. In addition, interviews further identified two categories of park use behaviours in MPEs: individual activities (relaxation and physical activity) and social activities (weak-ties social interaction, strong-ties social interaction and community participation). Interviews also found three mechanisms of place attachment: affective, behavioural and cognitive. This study has theoretical, empirical and practical contributions to the field. This study provides theoretical contributions by testing and extending social network theory, place attachment theory, and new urbanism theory in the Australian MPE context. This study contributes to Australian MPE research by providing empirical evidence to understand residents’ daily lives and human-environment relationships in MPEs. This study also makes an empirical contribution by adding evidence collected in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study provides practical implications for policymakers, urban planners and developers of MPEs in Sydney or wider regions.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US.UTF-8
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/177160/1/thesis.pdf
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	© 2023 Chunyan Yang
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/cph
dc.title	Community Parks, Social Interaction and Place Attachment in Master Planned Estates in Sydney, Australia	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted various aspects of people’s living experiences and their emotional connections to their environments. The growing concerns about increased social isolation in Australian cities have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an urgent need to rethink human-environment relationships, social wellbeing and place attachment in cities and neighbourhoods. However, the relationships between neighbourhood public open spaces, social interaction and place attachment are unclear in literature. Few studies have investigated social interaction, place attachment and human-environment relationships in Master Planned Estates (MPEs) in Australia. There is a need to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of public open spaces on residents’ health and wellbeing in neighbourhoods, particularly in MPEs in Australia. This study investigated the relationships between community parks, social interaction, and place attachment in MPEs in Sydney, using case study mixed methods. Two cases were selected in Sydney: Breakfast Point and Liberty Grove. In the Phase I study, a resident survey was conducted to collect quantitative data from 192 residents in the two selected MPEs during COVID-19 in 2021. In the Phase II study, semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data from 16 residents in the two selected MPEs during COVID-19 in 2022. This study found three factors significantly and positively associated with residents’ social interaction in MPEs: frequency of community park use, satisfaction with rest spaces in parks, and parks’ pedestrian connectivity with surroundings. In addition, this study found three factors significantly and positively associated with place attachment in MPEs: pedestrian accessibility to parks, parks’ pedestrian connectivity with surroundings and satisfaction with children’s playgrounds in parks. In addition, interviews further identified two categories of park use behaviours in MPEs: individual activities (relaxation and physical activity) and social activities (weak-ties social interaction, strong-ties social interaction and community participation). Interviews also found three mechanisms of place attachment: affective, behavioural and cognitive. This study has theoretical, empirical and practical contributions to the field. This study provides theoretical contributions by testing and extending social network theory, place attachment theory, and new urbanism theory in the Australian MPE context. This study contributes to Australian MPE research by providing empirical evidence to understand residents’ daily lives and human-environment relationships in MPEs. This study also makes an empirical contribution by adding evidence collected in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study provides practical implications for policymakers, urban planners and developers of MPEs in Sydney or wider regions.

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