Research project
The future prospects of urban parks: The life, times and social order of Victorian public parks as places of social mixing
- Start date: 1 November 2015
- End date: 31 October 2017
- Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
- Co-investigators: Dr Anna Barker, Dr David Churchill, Professor Adam Crawford
Aims and objectives
- To understand the social significance, role and prospects of Victorian public parks in urban futures.
- To examine the official governance and lived experiences and expectations of urban public parks in the past and the present
- To reveal and expose to what extent the Victorian ideal of the park as a place of civilising influence over the urban poor and labouring classes was realised and experienced
- To broaden and extend historical research of the governance of urban public space beyond a focus on major city streets and squares
- To contribute to a reinterpretation and reinvigoration of the vision, governance and sustainability of urban parks in cities of the future
The past, present and the future: Linking themes
- The future prospects of Victorian public parks in the present day and at the time in which they were created:
- Spaces of experience
- Horizons of expectations
- The function of parks as places of social mixing:
- Possibilities for conflict around behaviour, anxieties of otherness and the potential for crime.
- Other-regarding outcomes that co-mingling may facilitate
Research questions
‘Spaces of experience’ in the past
- How did historical subjects experience and interpret their everyday lives, events and relations, in particular Victorian city parks?
- To what extent do experiences depart from/shaped by expectations?
‘Horizons of expectation’ in the past
- How did historical subjects (governors and governed) envision the future?
- What did they expect parks might become in terms of their social promise and desired effects?
- What do those visions reveal about the urban imagination of the Victorians?
‘Spaces of experience’ in the present
- How do contemporary subjects experience and interpret their everyday lives, events and relations, in particular Victorian city parks?
- To what extent do experiences depart from/shaped by expectations?
- What new social roles and functions are public parks expected to play in the multi-cultural city?
‘Horizons of expectation’ in the present
- How do contemporary subjects envision the future?
- What are the (new or changed) expectations about and visions for the future promise of public parks? To what extent are these multiple or contested?
- Are these visions socially sustainable, romantic or idealistic, and what do they reveal about the contemporary age?
Methodology
Historical analysis (1857 – 1914)
- Local authority and police archives
- The British Newspaper Archive
- Open space byelaws
- Photographs of parks
Contemporary study
- Focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders
- Leeds Parks Survey
Case studies
- Roundhay Park, Woodhouse Moor and Cross Flatts Park
- Opened for public use during the Victorian era
- The selection of parks draw out the diversity of:
- Ideals concerning the social purpose(s) of parks
- Size and social profile of users and stakeholders, with consequences for governance and regulation
- Experiences of park life, from the more ceremonial through to the familiar and informal
Project outputs
- Public exhibition
- New collection on Leodis photographic archive
- Policy seminar
- Academic conference papers and publications