A quick trip to Jurong Lake Gardens sees me witnessing families mingling with one another, the elderly doing morning exercises together and children chasing after one another at the playground. Dog owners bond over topics of pet-care as their fur children race each other at the Dog Run, a 2,200 sqm grass field where they can run freely. Unadulterated laughter of the young ones and the constant buzz of park-goers chit-chatting can be heard ricocheting through the air. Being a global city, Singapore is no stranger to immigrants who helm from countries all over the world. Over the weekends, it is not uncommon to observe large groups of workers from Bangladeshi and India picnicking at the open green lawn next to Chinese Garden MRT station. Many a times, they would engage in a hearty game of baseball as well, demarcating the play zone with raffia strings! It is without a doubt that green spaces bring people together and foster the development of social ties!
Research by many scholars have emphasized the significance of green spaces as ideal locations for people to mingle, meet each other and socialize. High rise buildings or HDB flats where most Singapore citizens reside separate them from one another, while crowded urban environments increase the difficulty of maintaining relationships. As a result, social interactions are diminished, and individuals can be deprived of social connections.
Urban green spaces combine ecology with the social aspect, allowing people of different backgrounds to meet, interact and establish relationships, promoting social cohesion in the long run. This, in turn, encourages high levels of social capital in individuals. Put simply, social capital refers to connections and shared values in a community that enable people to trust each other. Across all age groups, individuals with high levels of social capital consistently reported better psychological well-being compared to those with lower levels of social capital. Hence, it is really time for you to step out, and mingle more with like-minded individuals who enjoy green spaces in order to enjoy better psychological well-being! All the more, this would be made easier in 2030 when 9 in 10 households would be located within a 10-minute walk from a park! The easy access of green spaces (especially recreational parks and gardens located in the heartlands) would inevitably result in a rise for potential social interactions to take place. Interest groups (e.g. cycling, roller blading, kite flying) and small communities can even form between individuals who happen to meet and hit it off immediately!
From a psychological standpoint, the significance of social factors to one’s life is expressed in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943). In his theory, Maslow proposed that individuals have to fulfil lower level deficiency needs before higher-level growth needs can be satisfied. In particular, he highlights that all human beings must satisfy love/belongingness needs prior to self-actualization where an individual reaches his/her full potential. Belongingness refers to having a sense of connection to other people. Maslow noted that overlooking the importance of belonging can make our society more vulnerable to the demands of daily life. Positive social cohesion enhanced by the presence of urban green spaces is therefore essential for one’s belongingness needs to be fulfilled. This would lead to the development of a healthy personality and you can be further propelled to achieve self-actualization subsequently!
(Up next: Mental well-being)