Toward a situated understanding of people’s interaction with outdoor spaces

The role of the environment has been brought to the forefront of current UK urban policy as a way of enhancing people’s health and quality of life through the provision of accessible, safe, socially and aesthetically enjoyable places. It also underpins UK sustainable development policies (DETR, 2000) which aim to advance change in everyday life and enhance health, particularly in deprived neighborhoods, by improving access to, activities in and frequency of use of outdoor spaces. Based on this agenda, urban settings and their environmental features have been analyzed in terms of their accessibility and effects on quality of life by Sugiyama, Ward Thompson & Alves (2009) with, however, a loose link between personal, social and environmental variables and how that interaction may affect change in behavior. This chapter proposes that the concept of situations – put forward by social and ecological psychologists (Lewin, 1936; Barker, 1968) and symbolic interactionists (Goffman, 1959) – is fundamental to examining everyday places and behaviors that act as a keystone for quality of life.