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The social value of public spaces
Ken Warpole, Katherine Knox - Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Exploring the contribution public spaces make to community life, and how people use them, this research is relevant to any organisation managing a community building or space. The research refers to town centres and urban spaces as well as public open spaces including markets, parks and allotments, and privately owned spaces such as arts centres. Findings suggest that street markets allow people from a variety of cultural and social backgrounds to interact; parks enable young people to make friends and mix with the wider community; cafés and arts centres are key social places for mothers and children. Crime reduction strategies using design to cut crime, such as cutting down bushes, installing vandal-proof street furniture and closing public toilets affected their attractiveness and damaged their usefulness. Finally, regeneration strategies that fail to take into account local attachments to existing places may undermine existing networks within local communities; public spaces that look good but fail to provide adequate amenities or connections to existing social and economic networks will result in sterile places that people just do not use.

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