Ward Thompson and colleagues provide one of the strongest bridges from green-space research to belonging. Studying four highly deprived urban communities in Scotland, they combine objective measures of neighbourhood green-space quantity with self-reported use, stress, general health, physical activity and social well-being. Their central finding complicates any simple “more green equals better health” model: social isolation and place belonging emerge as particularly strong predictors of stress and health, while gardens, allotments, local green-space quantity, winter visits and views from home contribute through different pathways. The paper therefore relocates environmental benefit inside a social-spatial ecology. Green space matters not only as exposure but as part of the conditions through which people maintain connection, routine, local recognition and everyday coping. Methodologically, the study combines GIS-based environmental measures with psychosocial variables, making it especially useful for neighbourhood-scale research. Its wider implication is that planning for health must address both material landscape and the social capacity to inhabit it.
