Abstract
Inequality is an important social problem all over the world for years. It also appears to be an important obstacle to the well-being of societies. This problem, which affects many areas and quality of human life, has started to be experienced more with Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic process, which turned into a global crisis, has affected nature and human life in many ways and continues to leave deep traces. However, this process does not proceed with the same destructiveness for everyone. Pandemic has different meanings for people in each different socio-economic group. The process is much more difficult for vulnerable groups in society such as women, children, the elderly, the disabled and immigrants. Spatial reflections of these inequalities are also visibly increased. Especially, the distribution of open public and green spaces that are needed more is highly correlated with spread of disease. It has been observed that the use of public green spaces is realized in different ways by the vulnerable groups of the society, in some places, factors such as the inadequacy or poor quality of these areas have caused the public green spaces to become inaccessible or unusable for some segments of the society. At this point, it is very important to create an inclusive social structure, an environment where all groups of the society are not excluded due to any of their characteristics, and where they can benefit from services equally and fairly. Here, it is clearly seen that the concept of inclusiveness is quite necessary in order to ensure well-being in a society. Uneven social conditions also cause spatial injustices. It is very valuable to emphasize that existing inequalities continue to exacerbate with a global crisis and to examine the reflections of this in space. In this study, great importance was given to the role of public green spaces in the pandemic process and the relationship of the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups of the society with these areas. Two neighborhoods from Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, differing in terms of their socio-economic characteristics and their populations are approximately close to each other, have been selected as a case. One of these neighborhoods is the Mutlu neighborhood in the Mamak district of Ankara, and the other is the Birlik neighborhood in the Çankaya district. These neighborhoods were chosen because of their differences such as education level and income status. Basically, a comparison is made over the two neighborhoods mentioned. In addition, since the number and size of public green spaces in the neighborhoods vary considerably despite their close populations, these neighborhoods provide a suitable environment for comparison. In the study, an observational research method was used with the information obtained from the field due to the pandemic conditions. This paper mainly aims to reveal the tie between the socio-economic structure of a neighborhood and its usage of public green spaces by vulnerable groups, and while explaining this relationship, its effects on the pandemic process were also examined. Keywords: Inclusiveness, inequality, spatial justice, public green space, vulnerability
