Public Attitudes about Urban Lawns : Social Opportunities Provided by Urban Lawns in Lund, Sweden

Since the 19th century, urban lawns have gradually taken center stage to become one of the main sources of greening in many cities around the world. The current published research on planting technology, maintenance techniques, the impact of lawn maintenance, preferences for manicured lawns and the biodiversity protection for historical lawns as topics, has developed and increased over time. However, what has been less researched is the relationship and interplay between the perceptions of urban residents and their use of urban lawns. More specifically, our research focused on the question of how residents view, socialize and utilize city lawns accessible to them. To provide some insight into this area of urban lawn use, our research study was conducted in Lund, Sweden a city that uses lawns as their main form of greening. To accomplish the study’s objectives the city's lawns were grouped into the following categories:(1) park lawns, (2) residential neighborhood lawns, (3) lawns around public buildings, (4) lawns surrounding residential buildings, (5) lawns along greenways and (6) lawns along roads. By means of distributed open-ended questionnaires the researchers discovered two important findings. First, the socialization patterns and utilization of lawns differed between the six categories due to various factors which included the suitability of the land use. The data also showed that the efficiency of planting lawns in certain areas impacts the ability to access areas for socialization activities (i.e. roadsides and greenways). Secondly, the study revealed that the planting collocation and service facilities of lawns greatly influences residents' ability and opportunities for social interaction. Two other study findings were of interest namely that (1) the utilization of lawns among Lund’s working class was somewhat lower than that of students; and (2) that socialization and use of lawns were not necessarily related to the user's accustomed environmental background. Subsequently, this article discusses key themes that include residents’ attitudes, beliefs and opinions about the interaction of socializing and the meaning of those interactions in an urban environment. It is our purpose that this article spurs a more robust international dialogue about pragmatic lessons urban planners may learn about future designing efforts of urban green space in newly developing cities and established ones already confronting modern space and housing challenges