Weeds, wildflowers, and White privilege: Why recognizing nature’s cultural content is key to ethnically inclusive urban greenspaces

ABSTRACT

Many studies provide evidence of health and well-being benefits gained from contact with nature. In the United Kingdom, people who claim Black, Asian and UK minority ethnic (UKBAME) backgrounds are less likely to have a garden, or live near quality greenspace, and are often under-represented as park users, compared with White British people. Placemakers in the UK predominantly claim White British ethnicity. We find cultural biases support unfair advantage for White British people in provision of, and access to healthy nature in London. We propose insufficient attention is given to the cultural content of nature and find that inequality is sustained by White privilege in design or management, even in “best practice” exemplars. We propose action to increase equity in access to healthy nature in cities, responding to variation we find in Viability, Interest and perceived Healthfulness of greenspaces in London for people along lines of ethnicity, race and religion.

KEYWORDS:

• Nature
• health
• parks
• ethnicity
• equality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bridget Snaith

Bridget Snaith joined the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield in 2022, from the University of East London where she led Landscape Architecture programs. She is a UK Design Council Expert in built environment design, and a partner with Shape Landscape Architecture, a London-based participative design practice for public greenspace design. She has been designing urban landscapes with London’s diverse communities for over 20 years. She claims a White British ethnicity.

Anna Odedun

Anna Odedun contributed to this study and its infographics as a student researcher while on the MA Professional Landscape Architecture (Conversion) course at the University of East London where Snaith was course leader. She holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology, and significant professional experience in social and market research. Anna now works for Future of London.