Residents’ Satisfaction with Cultural City Life: Evidence from EU Cities

This paper investigates the determinants of residents’ satisfaction with the cultural facilities supplied in their city. This topic is relevant from a policy perspective since the active participation of citizens to the cultural life of their town is crucial for the sustainable utilization of tangible cultural assets. By using the results of a large survey study conducted in 63 EU cities, the present paper shows that the exploitation of the urban cultural assets for the attraction of tourists and visitors is likely to produce a positive externality on residents’ satisfaction with the cultural life of their city, but just up to a certain threshold of tourist pressure. Above this threshold, a further increase in the number of tourists is associated with a reduction of residents’ contentment.

     

Can Community Indicators Live Up to Their Expectations? The Case of the Flemish City Monitor for Livable and Sustainable Urban Development

The City Monitor is a policy instrument and has been used to measure the state of 13 Flemish cities in 2004, 2006 and 2008. The community indicators of the City Monitor provide feedback on the evolution of a multitude of phenomena, and so they represent an opportunity for policy learning about the livability and sustainability of those cities. Indicators simplify the representation of societal problems and in that sense they are helping the communication between city authorities and their stakeholders. In this article we also focus on two innovative characteristics of the co-design methodology of the City Monitor. First of all, indicators were constructed on the basis of a normative vision about urban sustainability. We argue that a sustainability framework can give value added to map vital signs of the quality of life in Flemish cities. Secondly, the City Monitor was being developed with the participation of about 200 experts, coming from city governments and other administrations, civil society and academic world. It is our argument that the participatory approach fosters the use of community indicators and generates interesting side effects. As a third argument, we indicate the importance of the attitude of city authority people for its implementation within the city organisation. The City Monitor is certainly meant as an input for urban policy debate about the quality of life in the major Flemish cities. Does it live up to its expectations? And will the vision and indicators on urban sustainability stir up the debate about urban sustainable development?     

社会支持与城市移民子女生活满意度：学校适应的中介作用

该研究以城市移民子女作为研究对象,主要探讨社会支持对城市移民子女生活满意度的影响及预测作用,以及学校适应在社会支持与生活满意度之间的作用机制。研究结果表明：1）社会支持、学校适应与城市移民子女的生活满意度均呈显著相关,社会支持对城市移民子女生活满意度具有显著的正向预测作用。2）学校适应在社会支持影响城市移民子女生活满意度中起部分中介作用,即社会支持可以直接影响生活满意度,也可以通过学校适应间接影响生活满意度。但社会支持对生活满意度的直接影响是最主要的影响路径。．     

The backstage of urban ambiances: When atmospheres pervade everyday experience

This paper explores a new way of designing and experimenting with the city. How are we to conceptualize the changes in contemporary cities on the basis of their ambiances? What about the sensory and emotional production of urban territories? What is at stake when our aim is no longer to design space but also to install an atmosphere? In order to answer such questions, rather than offering a formal definition of what an ambiance may be, I intend to show from what it proceeds, on what it is based, what it produces and transforms in urban life. The focus is exploring five ambiance operating modes in the province of urban design: establishing the sensory as a field of action, composing with affective tonalities, giving consistency to urban situations, maintaining spaces over time and playing with imperceptible transformations. Each of these operating modes can account for how a physical environment manages to become a lived ambiance, how a world of built forms manages to become a world of sensory atmospheres. Starting with the sensory environment itself, I show how it is increasingly becoming a domain of design and research. Then I emphasize on the role of affect in everyday urban situations and daily social activities. Thirdly I explore the pervasive character of an ambiance and question its capacity to unify an experience. I continue by pointing out the temporal dynamic of an ambiance and the necessity to sustain a sense of continuity of the environment. Finally I emphasize on the importance of micro-phenomena in the quality and immersive power of an ambiance. These five operating modes of ambiance enables us to focus on the very ordinary sensory fabric of urban life and its issues.     

Perceived residential environment quality in middle- and low-extension italian cities

This paper presents two updated instruments measuring the inhabitants perceived quality of their neighbourhood in urban places. This sphere is part of the environmental domain, which is considered one of the four components in individuals overall quality of life (Group development of the World Health Organization WHOQOL, 1998). The instruments consist of 11 scales measuring perceived residential environment quality (PREQ) indicators and one scale measuring neighbourhood attachment (NA). PREQ scales are included in the four generative criteria as follows: three scales deal with spatial aspects (i.e. architectural-planning space, organisation and accessibility of space, green areas); one scale concerns human aspects (i.e. people and social relations); four scales relate to functional aspects (i.e. welfare, recreational, commercial and transportation services); three scales deal with contextual aspects (i.e. pace of life, environmental health, upkeep). The objectives are: a) to generalise the structure and number of both the PREQ and NA indexes (previously verified on various residential areas of a large city like Rome; see Landscape and Urban Planning 65 (2003) 41; Housing Surveys. Advances in Theory and Methods, Crad, Quebec, Canada (1997), 99) on medium- and low-extension cities; b) to improve the psychometric qualities (i.e. internal consistency coefficients) of the scales; c) to verify the capacity of PREQ and NA indexes to discriminate between cities. The instruments consist of a self-report questionnaire, which was administered to 1488 residents in different neighbourhoods of 11 Italian middle- and low-extension cities (from 50,000 to 400,000 inhabitants). Results confirm the factorial structure of the scales, which include 19 PREQ indexes and one NA index. The scales show an increased level of reliability with respect to previous studies.     

Measuring Subjective Quality of Life: A Survey to Porto’s Residents

The evaluation of the urban quality of life has been an important aspect of the research concerning the contemporary city and an increasingly support to urban planning and management. As part of a project to monitor the quality of life in the city of Porto, a survey of the resident population was conducted in order to study the citizens’ perceptions of their local quality of life and its evolution in recent years. The opinions of individuals on their level of satisfaction with various fields of the urban quality of life are systematised, as well as their integrated assessment. This analysis is complemented by a multivariate analysis that allows the grouping of the interviewees in large homogenous groups and their social and economic characterisation. Based on the results achieved, we try to highlight the usefulness of the qualitative analysis of the quality of life to support the definition of urban policies.

城市居民生活满意度及其影响因素研究

为研究城市居民生活满意度的状况和影响生活满意度的因素,采用问卷方法对227名天津市居民在各项满意度上进行测量。结果显示宏观社会环境对城市居民生活满意度有重要影响．当前总体生活满意度基本乐观,多元回归分析表明,与生活满意度显著相关的因素有乐观、自尊、自由、满足、离异、欢愉和下岗等,表明基本生活保障达到一定满足后．乐观的情绪等。0理品质在生活满意度上具有重要意义。通过改善宏观社会环境和引导个人增强应对重大生活事件的能力及积极调整心态等可以保持和提高生活满意度。     

Cities and the real world

It is generally recognized that modern cities pose many problems for their inhabitants and contribute to environmental damage. However, neither planners nor scientists give adequate consideration to cities’ place in the evolutionary process and the planet's ecological system. By recognizing these connections and natural laws, planning would become more realistic, and meaningful progress could be made in solving serious social and environmental problems. Some basic problems influencing urban form are discussed, and a schematic example of how we might approach the planning of urban settlements is presented.     

家庭收入与生活满意感的动态关系检验:基于某省21县市2004～2010年的面板研究

本研究通过对2004年至2010年21县市的面板研究验证在县市水平上家庭收入与生活满意感的动态关系。多元多层增长模型的检验结果表明,在县市水平上平均家庭收入与平均生活满意感有显著正相关,初始家庭收入与生活满意感的增长速度呈现负相关,家庭收入增长速度与生活满意感增长速度呈现负相关。最后指出在中国经济持续高速发展的背景下,该研究对提升民众整体幸福感的启示意义。     

Affective dimension in cognitive maps of Barcelona and São Paulo

This paper analyses the relationship between city and affection as revealed through an investigation into the feelings and emotions of a sample of inhabitants of Barcelona and São Paulo towards their cities. A study of affection in the context of a city has its origin in the assumption that it is possible to develop an ethical‐affective rationality in the creation of spaces of both public and private interest, a dimension that can serve to optimize the action of the inhabitants of a city. The theoretical/methodological approach adopted was essentially interdisciplinary, with a basis in social psychology, as can be seen in the data‐gathering instrument. In order to assess the city's affective dimension, individual interviews were carried out and a questionnaire was applied to individuals in groups. In the latter subjects were asked to make a drawing representing their city and to answer some questions regarding this pictorial representation. The sample consisted of 200 subjects, half of whom were from Barcelona and half from São Paulo. Most were in the age range 18–35, undergraduate or graduate students, with females and residents of the metropolitan areas of the two cities studied being in the majority. The qualitative data were classified according to their meaning and content, using the categories that had been established in the pilot study, namely contrasts, insecurity, pleasantness, and belonging. A statistical analysis was then performed on the resulting categories. After being categorized, catalogued, and qualified by metaphors, the responses gave the following images: city of contrast, city of attraction, city of destruction, city of surprises, city of movement, and pleasant city. These images show feelings and emotions about Barcelona and São Paulo that act as representations. This presents the need to revise the affective dimension in the meaning structure of cognitive maps as proposed by Lynch. As a result, the new category of affective maps is therefore proposed, as being the category that expresses affective meanings and serves as an indication of the level of esteem for the city, two aspects that act as reference points for the involvement and participation of a city's inhabitants.     

Life satisfaction and satisfaction in domains of life: is it a simple relationship?

This paper studies the nature of the relationship between life satisfaction and satisfaction in domains of life. The domains-of-life literature assumes that a person’s overall satisfaction with his or her life depends on his or her satisfaction in many concrete areas of life, which are classified into a few main domains of life. This paper addresses the issue of what characteristics the relationship between life satisfaction and satisfaction in domains of life has by focusing on its specification. The domains-of-life literature has commonly assumed that an additive relationship between domains satisfaction and life satisfaction does exist. This paper argues that the use of an additive relationship has substantially restricted our comprehension of the relationship; since it makes impossible to empirically address questions such as: Is life satisfaction just a weighted average of domain satisfactions? How easy is it to substitute satisfaction in one domain by satisfaction in another? Is it reasonable to expect similar additional benefits when we continuously improve satisfaction in one domain? What happens with our life satisfaction when we manage to continuously improve satisfaction in all domains? What happens with the importance of one domain when satisfaction in another domain declines? The paper argues that there could be substantial gains in the understanding of the relationship by assuming alternative specifications. At an empirical level the investigation works with four different specifications: an additive relationship, a semi-logarithm relationship, a logarithm–logarithm relationship, and a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) relationship. Using a database from Mexico, the investigation finds out that an additive specification provides – at least for Mexico – a goodness of fit similar to those of alternative specifications. However, there are some relevant issues in the relationship between domains satisfaction and overall life satisfaction that cannot be studied with an additive specification; hence, the?use of an alternative specification – in particular a CES specification – is preferable if the objective is to understand rather than to predict life satisfaction.     

Environmental annoyances: an urban-specific threat to quality of life?

Two questions are at the bases of this paper: (1) what is the importance of environmental features among all other factors contributing to threaten the individual's quality of life, and (2) are cities perceived as being worse than rural environments in terms of environmental quality? In order to respond to these questions, a French version of the Lazarus Hassle scale has been published in an issue of the periodic “Science et Vie”. 1791 individuals from all parts of France sent in their responses. Results show that environmental features are among the most severe hassles of daily life in French population. They are the most often mentioned and the highest ranked items. Looking at the size of the place of residence, it appears that inhabitants of rural areas do not consider themselves significantly less exposed to stressors like noise, air pollution, traffic problems or criminality than Parisians or inhabitants of other big agglomerations, and they do not feel significantly less irritated, frustrated or anxious by environmental problems, than others. In terms of people–environment relations, the results suggest that, whatever the objective environmental condition, people feel stressed by environmental problems, which indicates that the awareness of such issues seem to be at least partly dependent on normative social constructs.     

An Applied Mereology of the City: Unifying Science and Philosophy for Urban Planning

Based on their research showing that growing cities follow basic principles, two theoretical physicists, Luis Bettencourt and Geoffrey West, call for researchers and professionals to contribute to a grand theory of urban sustainability. In their research, they develop a ‘science of the city’ to help urban planners address problems that arise from population increases. Although they provide valuable insights for understanding urban sustainability issues, they do not give planners a manageable way to approach such problems. I argue that developing an applied mereology to understand the concept of ‘city identity’ gives planners a theoretical device for addressing urban affairs, including ethical concerns. In turn, I devise a model of city identity to show how a ‘philosophy of the city’ contributes to a grand theory of urban sustainability.     

Pedestrians as floating life - On the reinvention of the pedestrian city

Walking with its average speed of 5 km/h was for a very long period the primary mode of moving and engaging with the immediate material environment for humans. However, over the past half-century, the socio-technical systems of automobility as well as other forms of non-human powered mobility have changed the ways in which cities are experienced. Most recently, however, the pedestrian mode has been reprioritised resulting in a shift of emphasis, particularly in European cities, toward recognising the destructive forces of automobility. This shift has been accompanied by a variety of pedestrian reprioritisation strategies including the pedestrianisation of city streets as well as restricted vehicular access to particular inner city zones at prescribed times. The challenge for many cities is how to legitimately change mindsets, from automobility to walking. This paper explores the reprioritisation of urban walking not as ‘infrastructure’ or an ‘intervention’ but as transitory, ‘floating life’ across space and time. We conceptualise walking as a multi-sensorial, effective, and mobile engagement with the material environment. In doing so, we ask how the ‘floating life’ of pedestrianism may be reflected upon as part of the so-called ‘mobilities turn’ and in particular how theories of materiality, embodiment, design and experience interlink with walking. In this paper walking as a pedestrian is therefore a particular quality of mobility. The way in which we ‘inhabit’ the city is significant when we walk, and turning to walking as ‘floating life’ pays attention to this underemphasised ontological dimension.     

Perception de la gêne environnementale en fonction de différents types d’unités urbaines françaises

This paper follows the analysis of a survey conducted on a broad sample of French urban residents. The aim of this secondary analysis was to identify the different dimensions of the perceived urban annoyances. The objective of this secondary analysies is to compare the perception of urban nuisances by city size and their geographical location within the metropolitan area: downtown Paris/provincial France, inner Paris/Parisian suburbs. Responses from 986 urban residents highlight (1) an effect related to the size of the urban unit since in provincial France, the six larger cities stand out against the others in terms of the greatest intensity of discomfort perceived by the residents; (2) a “capital” effect, since in Paris, in spite of the gigantic scale of the space and the very strong density of population involving hard environmental nuisances, the residents have a positive perception of their city compared to the residents of the other big French cities; (3) a heterogeneity of the responses from the residents of the Parisian suburbs according to their department. The results are discussed on the one hand in the light of the logic of sociospatial segregation of the urban territories, and on the other hand by suggesting that affective-cognitive processes could be mediators between the objective characteristics of the urban nuisances and their subjective perception by the residents.     

Quality of Life and Compact Development Policies in Bandung, Indonesia

The study explores whether Quality of Life (QOL) corresponds to the spatial pattern of urban system as a result of compact development policy practice in Bandung city, Indonesia. It examines the connection between QOL and selected attributes of compact development. A self-reported life satisfaction is used as a proxy for QOL based on a cross-sectional survey data from 400 respondents. The analysis shows that the changes in QOL significantly correspond to the change of different attributes of compact development. The result suggests that compact development policies in Bandung have not shown a desirable result in improving QOL of the urban residents. The result also indicates that the implementation of the policy is less beneficial in the context of developing countries. The study strengthens the existing argument that compact development policies need to be tailored to suit the context of developing countries, rather than just be taken for granted from the practices in developed countries.     

The Impact of Home Ownership on Life Satisfaction in Urban China: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

China has implemented a series of socioeconomic reforms since 1978. One of the reforms allows urban residents to purchase their own houses rather than renting houses from state institutions which has resulted in a rapid increase in home ownership. This paper estimates the impact of home ownership on life satisfaction in urban China on the basis of the 2010 wave of the China General Social Survey. Special attention is paid to the methodological problem of confoundedness between the determinants of home ownership and life satisfaction. Propensity score matching (PSM) is applied to control it. The results show that PSM reduces upward estimation bias caused by confoundedness and that it is more appropriate to control confoundedness than ordered probit regression. The estimates furthermore indicate that home ownership has a significant positive impact on life satisfaction of medium- and high income urban residents. For low income urban residents, the impact is also positive, though insignificant. The outcomes connect to the objectives of national development policy and thus have several important policy implications. First, the central and local governments, especially in provinces where it is still low, may want to continue stimulating home ownership as it enhances life satisfaction. Secondly, specific programs may be designed to make home ownership financially affordable for low income groups. Thirdly, local governments may want to initiate or intensify urban (renewal) programs to improve poor public facilities including public transportation, green space and sports accommodations in the immediate vicinity of depressing low income neighborhoods.     

The Many Faces of Life Satisfaction among Finnish Young Adults’

The aim of this study was to measure the levels of general life satisfaction among Finnish young adults, and to clarify the way in which life satisfaction is constructed. In order to explore these aims, the following research questions were specified: (1) What is the level of general life satisfaction among young Finnish adults?, (2) Which factors in young adults’ phase of life and social surroundings are related to their life satisfaction?, (3) Is it possible to find distinct groups of young adults among whom life satisfaction can be seen as differently constructed? If so, in what way are those groups different from each other? What kinds of factors are related to group members’ life satisfaction? The data for the study were gathered via a questionnaire. The subjects consisted of 192 Finnish young adults born in 1968, living throughout the country. The results showed the level of life satisfaction among Finnish young adults to be similar to that of the Finnish population in general. The two main factors underlying life satisfaction were found to be social relation-ships and factors related to working-life contexts. In addition, the study identified five distinct groups (three groups of women, two groups of men) which differed from each other, both in their levels of life satisfaction and in the factors underlying life satisfaction. The groups varied in the importance for life satisfaction that they attached to marital partnerships, friends, health, and hobbies. The results were seen as supporting the assumption that life satisfaction is a socially constructed phenomenon.     

Life Satisfaction is not a Balanced Estimator of the Good Life: Evidence from Reaction Time Measures and Self-Reported Emotions

A widespread belief in happiness research is that measures of life satisfaction capture the variety of an individual’s experiences along a single favorable—unfavorable dimension. The current article points to a possible violation of this assumption. With a combination of data and theory it argues that life satisfaction is not a balanced reflection of subjective experiences because the evaluation that drives judgments of life satisfaction is tilted towards pleasure and away from engagement. We postulate that feelings of pleasure are overrated in statements of life satisfaction, whereas feelings of engagement are underrepresented. Feelings of engagement and interest are further supposed to be indicators of personal growth. Measures of personal growth and life satisfaction should thus be unrelated. Empirical evidence for our model is provided by self-report and reaction time data from a Norwegian convenience sample (N = 30). Detection latencies for pleasant stimuli correlated significantly with life satisfaction but not with measures of personal growth. Life satisfaction correlated significantly with pleasant experiences, but not with engagement. Personal growth correlated significantly with feelings of engagement. Life satisfaction and personal growth were uncorrelated.     

Virtual cities as a tool for democratization in developing countries

The purpose of this paper is to analyze a specific kind of ICT-related urban initiatives: the role of virtual cities in improving democratic participation in cities of the developing world. The Internet’s global reach is producing an increasing presence of virtual cities in the developing world. And it may be precisely in this type of context where virtual cities can make a difference regarding democratization and participation. The examination of the virtual cities phenomenon in Lima, Peru, is useful to acknowledge some interesting urban trends and to point up some of the difficulties and potentials linked to the use of virtual cities as a democratization tool. She is involved in research on the relationship between Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the contemporary city since 1997. She is currently finishing her Ph.D. research on ICT related transformations in Latin American metropolises.