Communal green spaces for wellbeing? Using participatory action research for inclusive green space design for slum dwellers in Zambia.

This proposal concerns an innovative study aimed at determining how slum dwellers in Zambia design and utilise green spaces, and accounts for the multiple opportunities - such as improving food security, managing a healthy diet, meditation and mental restoration – that green spaces provide.

Through participatory action research (PAR), and a mix of quantitative and qualitative tools, it investigates how successful green space designs can inform measures geared towards improving living environments in the slum.

The study endeavours formulate a programme aimed at implementing and testing identified green space designs to establish their impact on slum dwellers’ subjective well-being.

With this project we aim to 1) challenge and present an alternative to extant structures for participatory planning in the Global North and Global South, 2), contribute to spatial justice by providing green space access to a socioeconomically and politically marginalised group in society, 3) generate critical insights into the various needs that green spaces fulfil from the perspective of people living in slums, and how this links to their sense of subjective well-being, and, 4) provide slum dwellers with tools and information about their settlements that may serve as a basis for advocacy and safeguarding of their human rights.