Community-led pocket parks and the microgeographies of sociality

: parkmaking, agentic materialities and spatial togetherness

Abstract

Pocket parks have become a significant urban spatial intervention across the globe, helping ameliorate the impacts of climate change, meet the social needs of growing urban populations, and deliver health benefits through connecting communities, and people with nature. In 2015 the UK’s Conservative Government launched a pocket park policy for England. It funded communities working in partnership with local authorities to transform or refurbish small, neglected, and derelict areas of less than 0.4 hectares into vital community assets that encourage community interaction. The spatial focus is on coastal communities in England, reported to have higher levels of health deprivation, including higher rates of social isolation and loneliness, when compared to their inland neighbours. Yet, despite a multitude of studies into the social value and benefits of parks, the recent literature tends toward a normative framing of community involvement in parkmaking and its socialities and lacks regard for the contingent politics in delivering community-led parks. This research aims to deepen knowledge of the complexities of parkmaking by focusing on the microgeographies and socio-material relations of pocket parks.
The research design comprised a qualitative approach to critically investigate pocket parks that had received funding from the Pocket Parks Scheme in three coastal locations: Morecambe, Southampton and Worthing. Collecting data between 2023 and 2024, the thesis adopted a mixed methods approach including in-situ and online interviews, observation and photographic survey, and analysis of historical and local policy and planning documents to undertake critical inquiry into the microgeographies of pocket parks through three inter-related empirical chapters. The first empirical chapter reveals how pocket parks have been reclaimed through labour practices and symbolic boundary-marking which materialises imagined socialities of the park and establishes sanctioned uses of the space. The second provides detailed insight into the agentic materialities of pocket parks and the unforeseen ways in which materials and objects were repurposed to provide points of everyday social connection. The final empirical chapter directs attention to modes of spatial togetherness by describing how pocket parks attract parkmakers, users and communities through visible activities and events. As such, the findings challenge normative calls for the provisioning of ‘worthwhile’ social infrastructure by highlighting the complex socio-material relations involved in parkmaking and the consequences for inclusion and exclusion. In light of the research findings, advice and recommendations to policymakers and practitioners seeking to deliver new pocket parks are offered

Date of Award	Jan 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Brighton
Supervisor	Paul Gilchrist (Supervisor), Lesley Murray (Supervisor) & Tara Woodyer (Supervisor)