Geographic research on parks has been wide-ranging but has seldom examined how and why people use parks, leaving these questions to leisure science, which privileges sociodemographic variables over urban socio-spatial explanations (eg, historical, political-economic, and location factors). This article examines recent geographic perspectives on park use, drawing upon environmental justice, cultural landscape, and political ecology paradigms to redirect our attention from park users to a more critical appreciation of the historical, socio-ecological, and political-economic processes that operate through, and in turn shape, park spaces and park-going behaviors. We challenge partial, user-orientated approaches and suggest new directions for geographic research on parks.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	parks, protected areas, race, ethnicity, landscape, policy, cities, nature, environmental justice, political ecology
Research Division:	Human Society
Research Group:	Human geography
Research Field:	Social geography
Objective Division:	Environmental Management
Objective Group:	Terrestrial systems and management
Objective Field:	Evaluation, allocation, and impacts of land use
UTAS Author:	Byrne, J (Professor Jason Byrne)
ID Code:	124364
Year Published:	2009
Web of Science® Times Cited:	250
Deposited By:	Geography and Spatial Science
Deposited On:	2018-02-20
Last Modified:	2018-08-27
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