Research suggests an opportunity to offer a more comprehensive analysis of temporal consumption experiences encountered by park users, and the subsequent contribution to a perceived ‘sense of place’. Using visual ethnography and rhythmanalysis, our study distances our analysis from textual accounts of park usage as well as provide policy recommendations

Cheetham, Fiona

McEachern, Morven G.

Warnaby, Gary

English

University of Huddersfield Repository

University of Huddersfield RepositoryMcEachern, Morven G., Warnaby, Gary and Cheetham, FionaProducing & Consuming Public Space: A ‘Rhythmanalysis’ of the Urban ParkOriginal CitationMcEachern, Morven G., Warnaby, Gary and Cheetham, Fiona (2012) Producing & Consuming Public Space: A ‘Rhythmanalysis’ of the Urban Park. In: (ACR) Association for Consumer Research 2012: Appreciating Diversity, 4th - 7th October 2012, Vancouver, Canada. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/15530/The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of theUniversity, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the itemson this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners.Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generallycan be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in anyformat or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profitpurposes without prior permission or charge, provided:• The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy;• A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and• The content is not changed in any way.For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, pleasecontact the Repository Team at: E.mailbox@hud.ac.uk.http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/873 Advances in Consumer ResearchVolume 40, ©2012Producing & Consuming Public Space: A ‘rhythmanalysis’ of the urban ParkMorven McEachern, Lancaster University, UKGary Warnaby, University of Liverpool, UKFiona Cheetham, University of Salford, UKExTENdEd AbSTrACTOver 2.5 billion visits are made to UK parks each year (Greens-pace, 2007). Hence, there is, unsurprisingly, an abundance of litera-ture dedicated to parks, especially within the context of urban regen-eration (Inroy 2000). However, little attention has been given to how these forms of social space are produced/consumed (Arsel and Bean 2010; Brace-Govan 2010; Costa and Bamossy 2003; Ozalp and Belk 2009; Sherry 2000), or about the temporality of these consumption experiences (Arnould and Thompson 2005). Calls to develop a more detailed understanding of the nature and meanings of consumption-related practices associated with park users have recently been made (Lee, Shepley, and Huang 2009), which suggests an opportunity to offer a more comprehensive analysis of the temporal consumption experiences encountered by urban park users, and the subsequent contribution to a perceived ‘sense of place’. For many industrialised cities, the creation of urban parks in the mid nineteenth century was seen to provide “lungs to the inhabit-ants of densely populated districts” (Latimer 1987, 7) and a place where the general public could take exercise. Thus, giving rise to a strong correlation between the quality of green space/accessibility to public parks and quality of life (Barbosa et al. 2007). Accordingly, changes were also made to the way that urban park spaces are being produced and managed, moving from city councils merely fulill-ing the function of park caretaker to a more strategic and actively ‘managed’ role whereby planned marketing activities are created to differentiate experience of the locale and (co-)create consumer value (Warnaby 2009).Public parks and green spaces are “by their nature multifunction-al and analysis falls between different academic areas” (CABE Space 2010, 42). Therefore, drawing from sociology’s view that “space and the duality production/consumption are thus dynamic concepts based on practices” (Styhre and Engberg 2003, 116), de Certeau’s (1984) and Lefebvre’s (1991) notion of space as a “practiced place” is em-ployed here. Moreover, as social practice is composed from daily, monthly and annual rhythms as well as natural rhythms, Lefebvre’s (2004) concept of ‘rhythmanalysis’ helps to capture more fully the embodied everyday experience of those who use or pass through the urban park space. Lefebvre suggests that rhythm exists when there is an interaction between a place, a time and an expenditure of energy, and which will incorporate repetition (in time and space), interfer-ences of linear processes (originating from human activity/social practices) and cyclical processes (originating in nature/the cosmos), and a cycle of birth, growth, peak, decline and end.  Lefebvre notes the existence of numerous rhythms (i.e. polyrhythmia), which can “unite with one another in a state of health, in normal (which is to say normed!) everydayness” (i.e. eurhythmia), or can be discordant (i.e. arrthymia), which he perceives as “a pathological state” (2004, 16).The study focuses on parks in the north west of England, UK. To help capture the diversity and complexity of human and non-human interaction in this socio-cultural context, we employ visual ethnography (Pink 2007) and walking interviews with users (Clark 2009). Compared to interviews alone, the use of photographs and ilm arguably help to capture more fully, the “lived realities of ev-eryday consumption” (Belk and Kozinets 2005, 128). Rather than merely recording movement or repetition of rhythms, our mode of analysis attends to moods, atmospheres and reciprocal interactions between humans as well as between non-human pulses of life, in other words, the ways in which rhythms animate the urban and fa-cilitate the creation of a ‘sense of place’. The visual and aural narratives produced as a result of these complimentary methods have helped us to make sense of the tempo-rality of the urban park as a consumption experience. A constant and dominant rhythm identiied at all parks is the ebb and low of user trafic, echoing the linear rhythms of travelling to work or school as well as serving as a constant reminder of the surrounding industriali-sation. Unsurprisingly, cyclical rhythms are extremely pronounced in the urban park context, separated by days, nights and seasonal events. Early morning, weekend rhythms are dominated by harmonic non-human interactions between swaying trees and birdsong which later become mufled as the park gates give way to the everyday ‘commercial rhythms’ of the fast food vendors preparing for the day ahead. From mid-morning to early afternoon, the urban park attracts a diverse range of individuals and groups. As the rhythmic pace in-tensiies, the exchanges between humans appear organized and ami-cable. For the most part, the user’s mood is of enjoyment and apprecia-tion - “Heaton Park would be my favourite...it’s a lovely space. It re-ally used to lift my spirits and clear my head especially going for an early morning walk...it was lovely”. However, tensions were evident at times (perhaps in a manifestation of arrthymia), with certain users indicating their annoyance at the intrusions and lack of respect for their space - “Every time I go to the park jogging I have dogs chase me. A few make contact with my feet and I have no idea if they are go-ing to bite or something”. Social relations brought about by interac-tions between non-humans and other non-humans were also spoken of by dog walkers – “the dogs stop and say hello to each other and you kind of naturally speak to the owner and ask them about their dog...so you build up a rapport based on dog ownership”. While recognising the role of urban park managers in ‘managing’ the aes-thetics of the park space and organising seasonal events such as sum-mer concerts and charity ‘fun-runs’, it is clear that it is the users who are instrumental in co-creating the overall image, ambience and consumption experience of the urban park. The multiple (poly)rhythms brought about by interactions be-tween place, time and human (and non-human) action, help to illus-trate more fully the temporal nature of urban park users’ consump-tion experiences. The paper concludes by discussing how our study helps distance our analysis from wholly textual accounts of park us-age as well as providing management and policy recommendations regarding the essence of urban park space.rEFErENCESArnould, Eric J. and Craig J. Thompson (2005), “Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty Years of Research,” Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (March), 868-82.Arsel, Zeynep and Jonathan Bean (2010), “Making and Consuming Places: From Discrete Things to the Big Picture,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 38, ed. Darren W. Dahl, Gita V. Johar and Stijn M.J. van Osselaer, Duluth, MN: Association for Consumer Research, 1-8.Barbosa, Olga., Jamie A. Tratalos, Paul R. Armsworth, Richard G. Davies, Richard A. Fuller, 874 / Producing & Consuming Public Space: A ‘Rhythmanalysis’ of the Urban ParkPat Johnson and Kevin J. Gaston (2007), “Who Beneits from Access to Green Space? 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Becoming A “Where” B Constructing and Consuming Space,”

Consumer Culture Theory (CCT):

Doing Visual Ethnography: Images, Media and Representation

Fiona Producing & Consuming Public Space: A ‘Rhythmanalysis’ of the Urban Park Original Citation McEachern,

Making and Consuming Places: From Discrete Things to the Big Picture,”

Mardelle Shepley and Chang-Shan Huang (2009), “Evaluation of Off-leash Dog Parks in Texas and Florida: A Study of Use Patterns, User Satisfaction and Perception,” Landscape and Urban Planning,

Parks for the People: Manchester and its Parks 1846-1926, Manchester City Art Galleries, Leeds: Maney and Son Ltd.

Practices of Everyday Life, Translated by S. Rendall,

Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life, Translated

Spaces of Consumption: From Margin to Centre,” Ephemera: Critical Dialogues on Organization,

The Park Life Report: The First Ever Public Satisfaction Survey of Britain’s Parks and Green Spaces,

The Production of Space, Translated by D. Nicholson-Smith,

The Role of Consumption in the Organization of Urban Space: The Case of Neo-Bohemia,”

Towards a Service-Dominant Place Marketing Logic,”

Urban Green Nation: Building the Evidence Base,” London: Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

Urban Regeneration and Public Space: The Story of An Urban Park,” Space and Polity,

Visualising Connected Lives: Qualitative Techniques for Mapping the Social and Spatial Landscapes of Community,

Where to From Here? A Comparison of the Meanings Designed into Three Public Spaces,”

Who Beneits from Access to Green Space? A Case Study from Shefield, UK,” Landscape and Urban Planning,

Producing & Consuming Public Space: A ‘Rhythmanalysis’ of the Urban Park

Producing & Consuming Public Space: A ‘Rhythmanalysis’ of the Urban Park

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