Key publications
Bell SL, Tyrrell J, Phoenix C (2017). A day in the life of a Ménière's patient: understanding the lived experiences and mental health impacts of Ménière's disease.
Sociol Health Illn,
39(5), 680-695.
Abstract:
A day in the life of a Ménière's patient: understanding the lived experiences and mental health impacts of Ménière's disease.
Concepts of social practice are increasingly being used to understand experiences of everyday life, particularly in relation to consumption and healthy lifestyles. This article builds on this in the context of lives disrupted and reshaped by chronic illness. It uses social practice theory to examine the lived experiences of individuals with Ménière's disease; a long-term progressive vestibular disorder, defined by episodes of severe and debilitating vertigo, aural fullness, tinnitus and sensorineural hearing loss. Drawing on the findings of 20 in-depth narrative interviews with Ménière's patients, and eight spousal/partner interviews, we explore the impacts of the condition on sensory, temporal, spatial and social dimensions of the body. In doing so, we highlight the intensely embodied sensory and emotional work required to maintain connections between the 'competences', 'materials' and 'meanings' that constitute and sustain the performance of both mundane and meaningful social practices over time. As connections between these elements of social practice are disrupted during more active phases of the condition, affected individuals may be defected from old practices and recruited to new ones, often requiring both time and social support to find meaning or pleasure in these alternative ways of being in the world.
Abstract.
Author URL.
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.
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.
Bell SL, Phoenix C, Lovell R, Wheeler BW (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.
Publications by category
Journal articles
Bell SL, Tyrrell J, Phoenix C (2017). A day in the life of a Ménière's patient: understanding the lived experiences and mental health impacts of Ménière's disease.
Sociol Health Illn,
39(5), 680-695.
Abstract:
A day in the life of a Ménière's patient: understanding the lived experiences and mental health impacts of Ménière's disease.
Concepts of social practice are increasingly being used to understand experiences of everyday life, particularly in relation to consumption and healthy lifestyles. This article builds on this in the context of lives disrupted and reshaped by chronic illness. It uses social practice theory to examine the lived experiences of individuals with Ménière's disease; a long-term progressive vestibular disorder, defined by episodes of severe and debilitating vertigo, aural fullness, tinnitus and sensorineural hearing loss. Drawing on the findings of 20 in-depth narrative interviews with Ménière's patients, and eight spousal/partner interviews, we explore the impacts of the condition on sensory, temporal, spatial and social dimensions of the body. In doing so, we highlight the intensely embodied sensory and emotional work required to maintain connections between the 'competences', 'materials' and 'meanings' that constitute and sustain the performance of both mundane and meaningful social practices over time. As connections between these elements of social practice are disrupted during more active phases of the condition, affected individuals may be defected from old practices and recruited to new ones, often requiring both time and social support to find meaning or pleasure in these alternative ways of being in the world.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Full text.
Bell SL, Westley M, Lovell R, Wheeler BW (2017). Everyday green space and experienced wellbeing: the significance of wildlife encounters.
Landscape Research 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.
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.
Bell SL, Phoenix C, Lovell R, Wheeler BW (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.
Bell SL, Phoenix C, Lovell R, Wheeler BW (2014). Green space, health and wellbeing: making space for individual agency.
Health and Place,
30, 287-292.
Abstract:
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.
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.
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.
Chapters
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, 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.
Publications by year
2017
Bell SL, Tyrrell J, Phoenix C (2017). A day in the life of a Ménière's patient: understanding the lived experiences and mental health impacts of Ménière's disease.
Sociol Health Illn,
39(5), 680-695.
Abstract:
A day in the life of a Ménière's patient: understanding the lived experiences and mental health impacts of Ménière's disease.
Concepts of social practice are increasingly being used to understand experiences of everyday life, particularly in relation to consumption and healthy lifestyles. This article builds on this in the context of lives disrupted and reshaped by chronic illness. It uses social practice theory to examine the lived experiences of individuals with Ménière's disease; a long-term progressive vestibular disorder, defined by episodes of severe and debilitating vertigo, aural fullness, tinnitus and sensorineural hearing loss. Drawing on the findings of 20 in-depth narrative interviews with Ménière's patients, and eight spousal/partner interviews, we explore the impacts of the condition on sensory, temporal, spatial and social dimensions of the body. In doing so, we highlight the intensely embodied sensory and emotional work required to maintain connections between the 'competences', 'materials' and 'meanings' that constitute and sustain the performance of both mundane and meaningful social practices over time. As connections between these elements of social practice are disrupted during more active phases of the condition, affected individuals may be defected from old practices and recruited to new ones, often requiring both time and social support to find meaning or pleasure in these alternative ways of being in the world.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Full text.
Bell SL, Westley M, Lovell R, Wheeler BW (2017). Everyday green space and experienced wellbeing: the significance of wildlife encounters.
Landscape Research Full text.
2016
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.
Bell SL, Phoenix C, Lovell R, Wheeler BW (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 Place,
30, 287-292.
Abstract:
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.
