Publications by year
2019
Bell SL, Leyshon C, Phoenix C (2019). Negotiating nature’s weather worlds in the context of life with sight impairment.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers Full text.
2018
Phoenix C, Bell SL (2018). Beyond “Move More”: Feeling the Rhythms of physical activity in mid and later-life.
Social Science and Medicine Full text.
Bell S, Phoenix C (2018). Nature' as an affordable 'activity space'? the importance of attending to embodied space-time-income constraints.
Author URL.
Bell SL, Leyshon C, Foley R, Kearns R (2018). The "healthy dose" of nature: a cautionary tale.
Geography Compass Full text.
(2018). Who doesn't visit natural environments for recreation and why: a population representative analysis of spatial, individual and temporal factors among adults in England.
Landscape and Urban Planning,
175, 102-113.
Abstract:
Who doesn't visit natural environments for recreation and why: a population representative analysis of spatial, individual and temporal factors among adults in England
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Contact with natural environments may be beneficial for various health and social outcomes but is often lower among groups who could benefit the most. Using data from >60,000 adults in England, we explored the spatial (e.g. amount of local greenspace), individual (e.g. socio-economic status) and temporal (e.g. seasonality) predictors of infrequent contact and the reasons given for it. Replicating earlier, smaller studies, infrequent users were more likely to be; female, older, in poor health, of lower socioeconomic status, of ethnic minority status, live in relatively deprived areas with less neighbourhood greenspace and be further from the coast. Extending previous findings, we also identified regional, seasonal and annual effects. Although response on issues of time availability were important, being ‘not interested’ and ‘no particular reason’ were also common. Identifying the predictors of these justifications (e.g. area deprivation was predictive of ‘not interested’ but individual socioeconomic status was predictive of ‘no particular reason’) sheds light on which demographic groups to engage in specific interventions designed to inspire greater interest in, and contact with, the natural world to offer more inclusive opportunities for positive experiences in nature.
Abstract.
Full text.
Power A, Bell SL, Kyle RG, Andrews GJ (2018). ‘Hopeful adaptation’ in health geographies: Seeking health and wellbeing in times of adversity.
Social Science and MedicineAbstract:
‘Hopeful adaptation’ in health geographies: Seeking health and wellbeing in times of adversity
© 2018 Living with adversity can create wide-ranging challenges for people's health and wellbeing. This adversity may arise through personal embodied difference (e.g. acquiring a brain injury or losing mobility in older age) as well as wider structural relations that shape a person's capacity to adapt. A number of dichotomies have dominated our understanding of how people engage with health and wellbeing practices in their lives, from classifying behaviours as harmful/health-enabling, to understanding the self as being defined before/after illness. This paper critically interrogates a number of these dichotomies and proposes the concept of ‘hopeful adaptation’ to understand the myriad, often non-linear ways that people seek and find health and wellbeing in spite of adversity. We highlight the transformative potential in these adaptive practices, rather than solely focusing on how people persist and absorb adversity. The paper outlines an agenda for a health geography of hopeful adaptation, introducing a collection of papers that examine varied forms of adaptation in people's everyday struggles to find health and wellbeing whilst living with and challenging adversity.
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Full text.
2017
(2017). Emotional Soundscapes of Life with Ménière's Disease. Hearing Journal, 70(3), 54-55.
Bell SL, Westley M, Lovell R, Wheeler BW (2017). Everyday green space and experienced wellbeing: the significance of wildlife encounters.
Landscape Research Full text.
Bell SL, Foley R, Houghton F, Maddrell A, Williams A (2017). From therapeutic landscapes to healthy spaces, places and practices: a scoping review.
Social Science and Medicine,
196, 123-130.
Full text.
2016
Bell SL, Tyrrell J, Phoenix C (2016). A day in the life of a Ménière’s patient: understanding the lived experiences and mental health impacts of Ménière’s disease.
Sociology of Health and Illness Full text.
Cleary A, Fielding KS, Bell SL, Murray Z, Roiko A (2016). Exploring potential mechanisms involved in the relationship between eudaimonic wellbeing and nature connection.
Landscape and Urban Planning,
158, 119-128.
Full text.
Bell SL, Tyrrell J, Phoenix C (2016). Ménière’s disease and biographical disruption: where family transitions collide.
Social Science and Medicine Full text.
White MP, Bell S, Jenkin R, Wheeler B, Depledge M (2016). The benefits of blue exercise. In Barton J, Bragg R, Wood C, Pretty J (Eds.) Green Exercise: Linking Nature, Health and Well-Being, Routledge.
Bell SL (2016). The role of fluctuating soundscapes in shaping the emotional geographies of individuals living with Ménière’s disease.
Social and Cultural Geography Full text.
Bell SL, Wheeler BW, Phoenix C (2016). Using geo-narratives to explore the diverse temporalities of therapeutic landscapes: perspectives from ‘green’ and ‘blue’ settings.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers,
107, 93-108.
Full text.
2015
Bell SL, Wheeler BW (2015). Local Environments and Activity in Later Life: Meaningful Experiences in Green and Blue Spaces. In Tulle E, Phoenix C (Eds.) Physical Activity and Sport in Later Life: Critical Perspectives, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
(2015). Seeking everyday wellbeing: the coast as a therapeutic landscape.
Social Science and Medicine,
142, 56-67.
Abstract:
Seeking everyday wellbeing: the coast as a therapeutic landscape
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Recent research suggests coastal environments may promote human health and wellbeing. This article explores the diverse coastal experiences sought out by residents of two towns in south west England to promote and preserve their personal wellbeing in the context of their everyday lives. It draws on the findings of an in-depth interpretive study conducted from May to November 2013 that examined the relative contribution of varied green and blue space experiences to individual wellbeing through the life course. Personalised activity maps produced using accelerometer and Global Positioning System (GPS) data were used to guide in-depth geo-narrative interviews with a purposive sample of 33 participants. This was combined with a subset of nine case study go-along interviews in places deemed therapeutic by the participants themselves, offering deeper insight into the lived experiences and relationships playing out within such places. Situated in a novel adaptation of the therapeutic landscapes framework, this article explores how symbolic, achievement-oriented, immersive and social experiences contributed to participants' sense of wellbeing in their local coastal areas. Participants expressed particularly strong and often enduring connections to the local coastline, with different coastal stretches perceived to cater for varied therapeutic needs and interests, at multiple scales and intensities. The findings suggest the need for greater acknowledgement of people's emotional, deeply embodied and often shared connections to the coast within coastal management policy and practice, both nationally and internationally. Importantly, such efforts should recognise the fluid, dynamic nature of this land-sea boundary, and the valued therapeutic experiences linked to this fluidity.
Abstract.
Full text.
Bell SL, Phoenix C, Lovell R, Wheeler BW (2015). Using GPS and geo-narratives: a methodological approach for understanding and situating everyday green space encounters.
Area,
47(1), 88-96.
Abstract:
Using GPS and geo-narratives: a methodological approach for understanding and situating everyday green space encounters
This methods paper contributes to the recent proliferation of methodological innovation aimed at nurturing research encounters and exchanges that facilitate in-depth insights into people's everyday practices and routine place encounters. By drawing on the experiences of an interpretive study seeking to situate people's green space wellbeing practices within their daily lives, we suggest value in using personalised maps – produced using participant accelerometer (physical activity) and Global Positioning System (GPS) data – alongside in-depth and mobile ‘go-along’ qualitative interview approaches. After introducing the study and the methods adopted, the paper discusses three opportunities offered by this mixed method approach to contribute a more nuanced, contextualised understanding of participants' green space experiences. These include: (a) the benefits of engaging participants in the interpretation of their own practices; (b) the value of using maps to provide a visual aid to discussion about the importance of participants' routine, often pre-reflective practices; and (c) the production of a layered appreciation of participants' local green and blue space wellbeing experiences. Used in combination, such methods have the potential to provide a more comprehensive picture of how current green space experiences, be they infrequent and meaningful, or more routine and habitual, are shaped by everyday individual agency, life circumstances and past place experiences.
Abstract.
2014
Bell SL, Phoenix C, Lovell R, Wheeler BW (2014). Green space, health and wellbeing: Making space for individual agency.
Health and PlaceAbstract:
Green space, health and wellbeing: Making space for individual agency
This essay examines the assumptions of green space use underpinning much existing green space and health research. It considers opportunities to move the field forward through exploring two often overlooked aspects of individual agency: the influence of shifting life circumstances on personal wellbeing priorities and place practices, and the role of personal orientations to nature in shaping how green space wellbeing opportunities are perceived and experienced. It suggests such efforts could provide more nuanced insights into the complex, personal factors that define and drive individual choices regarding the use of green spaces for wellbeing over time, thereby strengthening our understanding of the salutogenic potential (and limits) of green spaces.
Abstract.
2011
Bell S, Shaw B, Boaz A (2011). Real-world approaches to assessing the impact of environmental research on policy.
Research Evaluation,
20(3), 227-237.
Abstract:
Real-world approaches to assessing the impact of environmental research on policy
A substantial investment is made each year in research to support environmental policies. Understanding the impact of this research is important from a number of perspectives. What remains unclear is how such evaluations may be undertaken, particularly as very little current practice is captured in the literature. This paper reports on a set of 10 exploratory case studies of environmental research impact assessment in practice. Most of the impact evaluations identified have multiple objectives and used a combination of research methods. Challenges include establishing attribution, the timing of an evaluation, how to capture the duration of research impact, checking the reliability of information from key informant interviews and identifying methods for capturing as many impacts as possible. Best and Holmes' (2010) framework is used to consider the status of the case-study organisations in progressing from first generation linear models of knowledge to action to the more recently advocated systems models.
Abstract.
2010
Ekins P, Kleinman H, Bell S, Venn A (2010). Two unannounced environmental tax reforms in the UK: the fuel duty escalator and income tax in the 1990s. Ecological Economics, 69(7), 1561-1568.
