Shedding Light onto the City Blues Myth—The Potential of Stimulating and Activating Effects of Urban Public Spaces and the Role of City Relatedness

Lena Lämmle, Eike von Lindern, Dorothee Rummel, Mark Michaeli and Matthias Ziegler
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Lena Lämmle: Medical School Hamburg, University of Applied Sciences and Medical University, 20457 Hamburg, Germany
Eike von Lindern: Dialog N—Research and Communication for People, Environment and Nature, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland
Dorothee Rummel: TUM School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, 80333 Munich, Germany
Mark Michaeli: TUM School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, 80333 Munich, Germany
Matthias Ziegler: Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-14

Abstract: The present study aims to investigate whether a sense of relatedness to a city helps to broaden understanding of the restorative potential of urban public spaces. Findings based on a sample of German adults ( n = 249) confirm that people experience relatedness to a city. The study’s 3 × 3 (built, mixed, natural environment) × (average, livability environment, bird’s-eye view) design revealed disordinal interactions for being away, fascination, preference, mental fatigue, and stimulating and activating effects associated with cities. This implies that humans’ place perceptions are more complex than previously assumed. Both city and nature relatedness were relevant covariates of these findings. Surprisingly, the construct ‘activating effects’, was found to be mostly perceived as more positive for mixed and built environments compared to natural environments. Thus, complementing restorative environments research by introducing a measure for city relatedness significantly enhances understanding of the potential of urban public spaces for promoting human health and well-being.

Keywords: perceived restorativeness; nature relatedness; city relatedness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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