There is a growing body of research signalling the health and wellbeing benefits of being in
blue space. Here, we advance this intellectual agenda by critically examining perceptions
and experiences of coastal blue space among residents of a disadvantaged, predominantly
African-American community who report limited engagement with ...
There is a growing body of research signalling the health and wellbeing benefits of being in
blue space. Here, we advance this intellectual agenda by critically examining perceptions
and experiences of coastal blue space among residents of a disadvantaged, predominantly
African-American community who report limited engagement with their local coastal blue
space, despite beachgoing being considered mainstream by a previous generation. Drawing
on focus group data and sensitised to a range of theoretical perspectives aligned with race,
space and social class, we advance theoretical and empirical knowledge pertaining to blue
space engagement. In doing so, we demonstrate the need for more critically informed,
theoretically appropriate research in this area, which connects individual stories of the sea
to the wider historical, social and political settings in which relationships with blue space are
framed and produced.