Speakers
Description
The parkrun organization provides free, community-based runs across the UK, and in 2019 started their first run on the grounds of a mental health hospital for service-users, staff, and the general public. However, the experiences of those partaking in these runs, and the ways that they are experienced as emplaced, relational, and therapeutic have yet to be explored. This study therefore sought to explore the individual and collective experiences of those involved in the Bethlem parkrun. A mobile ethnography was conducted on the grounds of the hospital in London, UK. Ethnographic coding was used to organize the findings into two key themes focusing on ‘what it is like’ to participate in this parkrun: i) Bethlem as a Shared Leisure Space and ii) Shared Leisure Space, But for Whom? The findings illustrated the emplaced and relational (both human and non-human) experiences of some participants in this ‘therapeutic landscape,’ while highlighting that the events were highly exclusionary for others, namely service-users. These findings contrast the therapeutic landscapes literature which largely assumes their benefits are experienced equally or that these spaces are inherently salutogenic. Collectively, this work emphasizes the need for future leisure provision that is co-produced by service-users and guided by their experiences, abilities and desires. These findings can also be integrated in the development of future parkruns on the grounds of other mental health hospitals by ensuring that service-users are actively involved in their design and delivery.
