Abstract
The construction of new urban roads may cause severance, or the separation of residents from local amenities or social networks. Using qualitative data from a natural experimental study, we examined severance related to a new section of urban motorway constructed through largely deprived residential neighbourhoods in Glasgow, Scotland. Semi-structured and photo-elicitation interviews were used to better understand severance and connectivity related to the new motorway, and specifically implications for individual and community-level health and well-being through active travel and social connections.Rather than a clear severance impact attributable to the motorway, a complex system of connection and severance was spoken about by participants, with the motorway being described by turns as a force for both connection and severance. We conclude that new transport infrastructure is complex, embedded, and plausibly causally related to connectedness and health. Our findings suggest the potential for a novel mechanism through which severance is enacted: the disruptive impacts that a new road may have on third places of social connection locally, even when it does not physically sever them. This supports social theories that urge a move away from conceptualising social connectedness in terms of the local neighbourhood only, towards an understanding of how we live and engage dynamically with services and people in a much wider geographical area, and may have implications for local active travel and health through changes in social connectedness.
Highlights
The neighbourhood built environment is an important influence on the health and wellbeing of residents
We examine the severance impacts of a new section of urban motorway constructed through largely deprived residential neighbourhoods in Glasgow, Scotland
A complex system of connection and severance was described by participants, with the new motorway being described by turns as a force for both connection and, in some cases, severance
Summary
The neighbourhood built environment is an important influence on the health and wellbeing of residents. It has been shown to affect the health and wellbeing of residents through their use of local resources such as health services (Smith and Gurney, 1992; Mackett and Thoreau, 2015), their active travel (Smith and Gurney, 1992) and, this has been less widely studied, influencing their social capital and feelings of community cohesion (Appleyard and Lintell, 1972; Hart and Parkhurst, 2011) These impacts have the potential to be harmful in neighbourhoods with pre-existing low levels of resilience. We sampled participants from two neighbourhoods, Govanhill and Rutherglen (including Farme Cross) (Fig. 1) By viewing these two neighbourhoods as qualitative case study areas, we were able to observe differences in severance and connectivity at both neighbourhood and individual level, and consider the ways in which active travel and social cohesion related to health may have been affected by the motorway extension
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call