McNamara, Maedhbh and Murphy, Ailise and Dowler, Fiona and Foley, Ronan (2020) Valuing Blue Space for Health & Wellbeing: Survey Comparisons of Indoor and Outdoor Settings from Ireland. Revista De Estudios Andaluces, 39. pp. 8-22. ISSN 0212-8594

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Abstract

There has been an upsurge of recent interest in blue spaces, especially evident in nature-based research associated with the health and wellbeing potential of ocean-ic, coastal and inland waters. This paper documents Irish studies that compare in-door and outdoor blue spaces for different user communities and practices. The studies employ qualitative methodologies including interviews, visual surveys and go-alongs, to enact a form of ‘place capture’ in three different types of blue space. The first study, based at an indoor swimming pool in West Dublin, identifies the benefits and value of swimming as a healthy practice, from three different cohorts of respondents (n=79). The second study of a single canal space in the Midlands looks at the benefits identified by mixed regular users, including Park Runners, of the blue-ways alongside the Royal Canal (n=12). A third study captured comparative in-situ user-perspectives from two very different blue spaces, canal and beach, in two locations in Central/South Dublin (n=8). What emerges from the studies are complex assemblages of identified therapeutic outcomes in both health and wellbe-ing terms, reflecting diverse user perspectives from different types of blue space. The accounts reflect the literature in identifying both health-promoting and health-reducing dimensions of blue space experience, as well as commonalities and variations in how users explicitly value blue spaces settings. Key additional themes include, self-discovery, socialisation and recovery that hint at the potential of quali-tatively focused ‘emplaced blue community’ studies to underpin and inform public health policy and promote health resilience in Ireland and beyond

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Health; Wellbeing; Blue Space; Canals; Beaches; Swimming Pools;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography
Item ID:	12921
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.12795/rea.2020.i39.01
Depositing User:	Dr. Ronan Foley
Date Deposited:	11 May 2020 10:23
Journal or Publication Title:	Revista De Estudios Andaluces
Publisher:	University of Sevila
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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