Human values, subjective well-being and the metropolitan region. Regional Studies. Living in a country's largest metropolitan centre has a negative effect on subjective well-being. Although documented in many developed economies, the reasons for this particular geography of well-being are still poorly understood. Meanwhile a separate body of research has shown that the holding of extrinsic or personally focused values is also associated with lower levels of subjective well-being. This paper demonstrates the link between the two. It draws on the European Social Survey (ESS) 2012 to show how metropolitan residents in Finland are more likely to hold extrinsic values such as power and achievement.

This chapter’s authors conduct a critical review of academic and policy engagements with the concept of territorial cohesion as the guiding principle for the European Union’s regional policies. The authors discuss the limitations of the idea of territorial cohesion and frame some conceptual and more policy-related benefits that could arise from the notion of spatial justice. The authors argue that paying more attention to the academic literature on spatial justice, human capabilities and agency might help to spatialise the European Union’s social model in more effective ways. The authors conclude that applying more plural and long-term conceptions of ‘development’, ‘well-being’ and ‘justice’ could help to formulate regional policies that contribute more directly to the well-being and welfare of people in various parts of Europe.

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Over the past two decades, both academics and policy makers have discussed the meaning of territorial cohesion in the context of the European Union (EU). This debate on the meaning and content of territorial cohesion is becoming increasingly important in a Europe that is facing multiple crises. This article contributes to the literature on EU’s territorial cohesion policies by tracing the ways in which territorial cohesion has been defined, framed and justified as an EU policy. We analyse public speeches made by the acting commissioners for Regional Policy and inquire into the Cohesion Reports from 2004 to 2017 produced by the European Commission. In particular, we interrogate both the meaning of the concept of territorial cohesion and the justifications for pursuing territorial cohesion. We conclude with some critical remarks on the relevance of economic production-based definitions and justifications for territorial cohesion policies. Accordingly, we argue that treating macroeconomic production as an indicator of territorial cohesion harmfully consolidates a narrow understanding of societal wellbeing and development and imposes on all regions a one-dimensional economic scale to indicate their level of development.

This analysis examines the geography of subjective wellbeing within a single country via a novel dataset consisting of more than 26,000 respondents embedded in 3100 postal code areas in Finland. We include a detailed indicator on the level of urbanity of the respondent’s location derived from a 250 × 250 m GIS grid, contextual measures of the postal code area´s socioeconomic status as well as proximity to the nearest urban locality and capital city. This analytical framework model makes it possible to examine both individual and contextual determinants for perceived quality of life (QoL). In addition, we include individual-level measures on mental health (Mental Health Inventory MHI-5) and satisfaction with housing and neighbourhood characteristics. The results show that when controlling for socioeconomic factors living in an inner urban area or a neighbourhood (postal code area) with a high unemployment rate are associated with lower QoL and. Also, the share of population with a tertiary education in a postal code area has a positive effect for individual QoL. However, the effects of inner urban living and unemployment rate become insignificant when including mental health indicators and perceived loneliness. In sum, the results confirm and add more detail to earlier findings on lower QoL in urban context and connect living in inner urban area to mental health indicators. As such, the analysis provides further evidence for the positive QoL effects of more rural living while having an access to health and other services.

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Prior literature suggests that, among the so-called 'developed economies', residing in urban contexts is associated with lower life satisfaction. Using data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and Eurostat, we contribute to this literature by focusing on three different indicators of urbanity (subjective domicile, population density and living in a dominant urban region) in a multilevel modelling context in order to define where exactly the relatively lower life satisfaction can be found. Moreover, we account for the level of economic development at both regional and national levels. The results show that subjective domicile is strongly associated with life satisfaction, whereas regional gross domestic product (GDP) and other urbanity indicators are insignificant. Our results also highlight the relatively higher life satisfaction in rural surroundings in more developed countries. We conclude by noting that future contributions to the literature on urban-rural life satisfaction differences should utilize panel data, making it possible to address the spatial sorting versus contextual effects debate, and focus on investigating the higher level determinants at the country level that define the existence of urban-rural differences in life satisfaction within a country.

Life satisfaction is an understudied topic in literature on socio-economic stratification. Using the European Social Survey data, this study concentrates on the recent economic recession in Ireland, and the socio-economic stratification of life satisfaction before and during economic crisis. We measure stratification multidimensionally using education, occupational social class and income. The results show that the effects of the crisis, which peaked in 2010 in terms of both GDP and life satisfaction, are not experienced equally within the population. Lower strata (lowest income quartile, manual workers and those with basic education at most) are more affected. In the pre-crisis period, life satisfaction appeared to be stratified mostly by income, which was due to the experience of economic hardship. However, during the crisis stratification of life satisfaction took a more complex and deeper form and also basic education and manual labour then began to explain lower life satisfaction.