Discussion Assignment
Using your own words, provide a comprehensive definition of both the built environment and the social environment. Discuss how these two environments can affect health at the individual, community, and population levels.
Your Discussion should be 3-4 paragraphs in length, detailing your thoughts and position using 2-3 readings references for support. Also, be sure to pose 1-2 well-thought-out questions from which your colleagues can formulate a response or generate further discussion.
The built environment refers to the artificial spaces in which we live, work and live on a daily basis, including the buildings, public facilities, and spaces we construct; and it is correlated with social capital and related to society's material, informational, and emotional elements (Koohsari, et al., 2021). The built environment includes buildings such as residences, parks, public facilities such as stations and airports, and infrastructure that supports life, such as water supply and electricity. On the other hand, the social environment is the totality of social conditions that directly or indirectly affect our lives, such as production and consumption, and it includes community organizations, institutions, and structures, as well as classes and customs (Law Insider, n.d.). Both the built and social environments influence health at the individual, community, and population levels.
The built environment includes parks, sports facilities, roads, and stations used by people. For example, if we develop suitable paths for people to walk or cycle, or if we equip parks with exercise equipment that people of all ages can use, we can create a better built environment. For example, some stations in my community have stairs that look like piano keys, and beautiful melodies flow as people walk up the stairs, which encourages people to use the stairs instead of the elevators and escalators. Improving people's daily exercise levels at the community level in this way helps prevent lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, and at the same time, it also leads to the prevention of diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
On the other hand, the social environment affects our health in invisible ways. Without a community structure and system that allows them to live a safe, secure, and stable life, people will always feel tense and anxious, and stress will accumulate. In that state, people cannot live happy and healthy lives. Building and maintaining a safe and stable social environment is essential for people's physical and mental health. In addition to that, building good relationships with other people in the community is also an important factor (Mouratidis, 2021). Active interaction and trusting relationships with society lead to good mental states and healthy behaviors and prevent people from becoming isolated and unhealthy.
While born, raised, working, and living in Japan, I realized that architectural and social environments play vital roles. As a design employee at a construction company, the built environment has always been my concern. Many factors go into making people interact and improve their health and well-being. Additionally, Japan has a unique social environment because of its homogenous ethnicity and historically collectivist solid background. Both elements are closely related to our lives and are directly linked to health and well-being.
Question
Give examples of unique built environments in your community. Where is it? How does it promote people's health??
References
Koohsari, M., Nakaya, T., McCormack, G., Shibata, A., Ishii, K., Yasunaga, A., Hanibuch, T., & Koichiro, O. (2021). Traditional and novel walkable built environment metrics and social capital. Landscape and Urban Planning, 214. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104184
Law Insider. (n.d.). Social environment definition. Retrieved from https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/social-environment
Mouratidis, K. (2021). Urban planning and quality of life: A review of pathways linking the built environment to subjective well-being. Cities, 115, 103229. Retrieved from https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0264275121001293?token=4BB804FD862EE968549FC30544FBDA63B0E2040DD1818A60C82DF8CD0B6646C78DB3AE389A37DB2926EC8879F9883789&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20211001182539
댓글