Marketta Kyttä

The extent of children's independent mobility and the number of actualized affordances as criteria for child-friendly environments

Abstract Diversity of environmental resources and access to play and exploration have been regarded as the two central criteria of a child-friendly environment (Moore, 1986). The former has been operationalized in this article by the number of actualized, positive affordances (Gibson, 1979; Heft, 1989) and the latter by the degree of independent mobility. A hypothetical model in which the degree of independent mobility and the number of actualized affordances covary in four varying types of childrens environments was constructed. The latter are called Bullerby (the ideal environment), Wasteland, Cell, and Glasshouse. The model was applied in the interpretation of the research data from eight different neighborhoods of various levels of urbanization, in Finland and Belarus. The subjects (n=223) were 8–9-year-old children, who were studied by using individual interviews and questionnaires. The results indicate that all of the hypothesized environment types appeared in the data. Each neighborhood had a unique combination of affordances and independent mobility in terms of the model. The Bullerby type of setting abounded in the Finnish communities. The Cell, Wasteland and Glasshouse were the most common types of environment in the Belarushian data. In general, the proportion of Bullerby-type settings decreased and the glasshouse-type increased as the degree of urbanization augmented. The models and measures applied need further elaboration and testing in different environments and with varying groups of children. The co-variation of the actualized affordances and the degree of independent mobility can be considered a significant indicator in the assessment of child-friendly environments.

Urban happiness: context-sensitive study of the social sustainability of urban settings

Previous studies have reported multifaceted, controversial social outcomes of densely built urban settings. Social sustainability of urban environments have rarely been studied in a context-sensitive manner, identifying the specific ways urban structural characteristics contribute to the behavioural, experiential and well-being outcomes. In this study, an online public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) methodology allowed the place-based study of urban and suburban contexts in the metropolitan region of Helsinki, Finland. Respondents (N = 3119) located their meaningful places and reported the experiential and well-being outcomes. GIS-based measures of urban structures were calculated within a 500m buffer around their homes. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the contextual variation and the mediational role accessibility and perceived environmental quality play in linking urban structural characteristics with well-being outcomes. Our findings indicated that although increasing urban density was associated with shorter distances to everyday services in both urban and suburban settings, the experiential and well-being outcomes varied. In the urban context, easy access to services contributed to higher perceived environmental quality and positive well-being outcomes, whereas in the suburban setting, the closeness of services decreased the experiential and well-being outcomes. Perceived environmental quality was strongly associated with well-being in both contexts. We concluded that densely built urban neighborhoods can also support social sustainability, but the processes vary between suburban and urban settings. A challenge remains for urban planners on how to improve accessibility and related positive experiential outcomes in suburban contexts.

Let the Citizens Map—Public Participation GIS as a Planning Support System in the Helsinki Master Plan Process

Abstract Current public participation methods are laborious, reach few participants and are ineffective at gathering usable information for planning. This situation leads often to mistrust and dissatisfaction in the process and outcome. This article identifies the critical conditions for meaningful use of public participation GIS (PPGIS) tools to support the making of master plan in Helsinki. With PPGIS tools, residents’ insight of their living environment can be reached and utilized along the planning process. The results are divided to conceptual and empirical points. Whereas the conceptual points emphasize better understanding of the locus of the PPGIS tools in planning process, the empirical findings reveal new ways to study how residents’ perceptions align with the plan proposal. Though new tools, data and analysis can support representativeness, independence, early involvement, influence and transparency, planners and residents need more understanding of the benefits of these tools. The study indicates that though planners found the collected data and the analysis valuable, they still lacked the skills and institutional motivation to use the data effectively. The results point out that when PPGIS tools can be integrated to the mainstream planning practices, the tools have the ability to evolve to a more comprehensive participatory planning support system.

An Internet-Based Design Game as a Mediator of Children’s Environmental Visions

This exploratory study examines howan Internet-assisted design game succeeds in bringing forth children’s own visions for the environment where they live and their definitions of a good environment. Two connected concepts in environmental psychology, the theory of person-environment fit and the concept of affordances, are applied in the analysis of the results of the design process. The participants were 16 8-year-old children living in a suburb of Helsinki, Finland. The results indicate that children’s design solutions are sensitive to the geographical context. The children generally enjoyed the Internet-based design game. The girls designed more affordances for simply being in peace, whereas the boys emphasized affordances for playing games. The study indicates that affordances can be applied as icons in design games. They also function as a viable concept in the operationalization of the personenvironment fit; however, the theory of environmental fit and its operationalization need further development and empirical testing with larger samples.

The prospects for urban densification: a place-based study

Study of the environmental outcomes of urban densification is a highly context-dependent task. Our study shows that collecting and processing place-based survey data by means of the softGIS method is clearly helpful here. With the map-based internet questionnaire each response remains connected to both the physical environment and the everyday life of the respondent. In our study of the Kuninkaankolmio area (located in the Helsinki metropolitan region) the survey data were combined with urban density variables calculated from register-based data on the existing built environment. The regression analysis indicated that the participants in the survey preferred the same density factors for their future residence as they enjoyed in their current neighbourhood. In the second analysis we related the densities of planned infill developments with the interest respondents had shown in these projects. The results show that new and even quite dense infill developments have been found to be rather attractive, with them often being viewed as interesting supplements to the current urban texture. These findings contribute to the ongoing scientific discussion on the feasibility of densification measures and encourage the Kuninkaankolmio planners to proceed, albeit carefully, with the planned infill developments.

A Psychologically Meaningful Description of Environments Requires a Relational Approach

We firmly agree with Coolen that a significant contribution the ecological approach (Gibson, 1979) can make to environment-behavior studies concerns the central but vexing question of meaning. It is central because the meaning of environments for individuals underlies so much of what we do in our daily lives. The places we choose to enter, the places we occupy for sustained or brief periods of time, and the ways we design and arrange places rest to a large extent on their meaning in relation to our actions and goals. The question of meaning is vexing from the standpoint of environment-behavior analyses because of the way meaning has typically been treated in the psychological and social sciences. Specifically, the theoretical traditions that form the backbone of most environment-behavior research assume that meaning is a subjective, mental quality that individuals’ impose on an otherwise meaningless environment of physical structures. However, to adapt a point raised by Wohlwill (1973) over 30 years ago, this theoretical stance places individuals who are investigating, assessing, or designing human environments in an untenable position. For if meaning is a quality that is present only in a subjective mental realm of separate individuals, how can it and similar psychological phenomena possibly be tied in any systematic ways to the environment? If psychological experience is all ‘‘in the head’’, why assume that environmental design efforts will matter at all psychologically? This way of thinking has impeded progress in developing a psychologically meaningful treatment of the environment. We have each held for some time that the ecological approach offers an avenue for overcoming this dilemma (e.g. Heft 1981, 1997, 2001, Kyttä 2002, 2003, 2004). The concept of affordances is central in this regard. This concept refers to the functional possibilities that a feature of the environment offers to a particular individual. That is, a feature’s affordances are its meanings considered from a functional standpoint for some individual. For example, a horizontal surface of support positioned approximately at knee-height affords ‘‘sitting-on’’ for an individual (Mark 1987). Considered in this relational manner, the feature is not merely a physical feature, but also a functionally meaningful one; it is a place to sit. And its functional significance Housing, Theory and Society, Vol. 23, No. 4, 210–213, 2006

Neighbourhoods for Active Kids: study protocol for a cross-sectional examination of neighbourhood features and children's physical activity, active travel, independent mobility and body size.

Introduction New Zealand childrens physical activity, including independent mobility and active travel, has declined markedly over recent decades. The Neighbourhoods for Active Kids (NfAK) study examines how neighbourhood built environments are associated with the independent mobility, active travel, physical activity and neighbourhood experiences of children aged 9–12 years in primary and intermediate schools across Auckland, New Zealands largest city. Methods and analysis Child-specific indices of walkability, destination accessibility and traffic exposure will be constructed to measure the built environment in 8 neighbourhoods in Auckland. Interactive online-mapping software will be used to measure childrens independent mobility and transport mode to destinations and to derive measures of neighbourhood use and perceptions. Physical activity will be measured using 7-day accelerometry. Height, weight and waist circumference will be objectively measured. Parent telephone interviews will collect sociodemographic information and parent neighbourhood perceptions. Interviews with school representative will capture supports and barriers for healthy activity and nutrition behaviours at the school level. Multilevel modelling approaches will be used to understand how differing built environment variables are associated with activity, neighbourhood experiences and health outcomes. Discussion We anticipate that children who reside in neighbourhoods considered highly walkable will be more physically active, accumulate more independent mobility and active travel, and be more likely to have a healthy body size. This research is timely as cities throughout New Zealand develop and implement plans to improve the liveability of intensifying urban neighbourhoods. Results will be disseminated to participants, local government agencies and through conventional academic avenues.

Sensory and emotional perception of wooden surfaces through fingertip touch

Previous studies on tactile experiences have investigated a wide range of material surfaces across various skin sites of the human body in self-touch or other touch modes. Here, we investigate whether the sensory and emotional aspects of touch are related when evaluating wooden surfaces using fingertips in the absence of other sensory modalities. Twenty participants evaluated eight different pine and oak wood surfaces, using sensory and emotional touch descriptors, through the lateral motion of active fingertip exploration. The data showed that natural and smooth wood surfaces were perceived more positively in emotional touch than coated surfaces. We highlight the importance of preserving the naturalness of the surface texture in the process of wood-surface treatment so as to improve positive touch experiences, as well as avoid negative ones. We argue that the results may offer possibilities in the design of wood-based interior products with a view to improving consumer touch experiences.

Sense of Place, Fast and Slow: The Potential Contributions of Affordance Theory to Sense of Place

Over the past 40 years, the sense of place concept has been well-established across a range of applications and settings; however, most theoretical developments have “privileged the slow.” Evidence suggests that place attachments and place meanings are slow to evolve, sometimes not matching material or social reality (lag effects), and also tending to inhibit change. Here, we present some key blind spots in sense of place scholarship and then suggest how a reconsideration of sense of place as “fast” and “slow” could fill them. By this, we mean how direct and immediate perception–action processes presented in affordance theory (resulting in immediately perceived place meanings) can complement slower forms of social construction presented in sense of place scholarship. Key blind spots are that sense of place scholarship: (1) rarely accounts for sensory or immediately perceived meanings; (2) pays little attention to how place meanings are the joint product of attributes of environmental features and the attributes of the individual; and (3) assumes that the relationship between place attachment and behavior is linear and not constituted in dynamic relations among mind, culture, and environment. We show how these blind spots can begin to be addressed by reviewing key insights from affordance theory, and through the presentation of applied examples. We discuss future empirical research directions in terms of: (1) how sense of place is both perceived and socially constructed; (2) whether perceived and socially constructed dimensions of place can relate to one another when perceived meanings become unsituated; and (3) how place attachment may change over different stages of the life course based upon dynamic relationships between processes of perception–action and social construction. We conclude with insights into how processes of perception–action and social construction could be included in the design and management of urban landscapes.

Exploring the usability of PPGIS among older adults: challenges and opportunities

ABSTRACT The Internet provides a new source of information and a new discussion platform for public participation in planning processes. As geographic information systems (GIS) are an essential part of planning practice, equal access to public participation GIS (PPGIS) is crucial for successful stakeholder collaboration. Unfortunately, people with restricted access to computers, limited Internet skills, and poor map literacy could face potential exclusion. Although the older adults’ age groups show the strongest growth among Internet users, their general Internet skills remain limited compared to those of younger age groups. Furthermore, little previous research has been conducted on older adults’ usage of PPGIS, as current studies focus mainly on older adults’ use of the Internet in general or (passive) web maps in particular; PPGIS usability studies generally target a wider audience. In this qualitative and descriptive study, we examine older adults’ experience with a PPGIS survey and implement the findings into a final research survey design. The findings support previous results from other Internet or web map usability studies with older adults while, in addition, displaying similarities to the outcomes of general PPGIS usability studies, especially regarding cognitive abilities. Studying older adults draws attention to a vulnerable but growing Internet user group. As other age groups face similar challenges, we suggest that using older adults as a ‘test group’ for PPGIS usability could help improve the experience for the wider public.