Monitoring and Analyzing Quality of Life – An Introduction

Glatzer, Wolfgang

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9178-6_1

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…There is a large and diverse literature on QoL, from many different disciplinary perspectives (Ballas and Dorling, 2013; Huynh and Peiser, 2015; Lee and Sener, 2016). We note that many disciplines have debated the underlying concepts, indicators of, and differences between, quality of life, life satisfaction, happiness and wellbeing (Tay et al, 2015), but agree with Glatzer that, in essence, they all speak to “ evaluations, both positive and negative, that people make of their lives ” (Glatzer, 2015, p. 3). One relatively consistent finding across this literature is that determinants of QoL lie at many different levels; from individual and household, through neighbourhood and city, to region and nation (Ballas and Tranmer, 2011; Węziak-Białowolska, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Are urban landscapes associated with reported life satisfaction and inequalities in life satisfaction at the city level? A cross-sectional study of 66 European cities

Olsen

Nicholls

Mitchell

2019

Social Science & Medicine

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With more than half the world's population residing in urban areas and this proportion rising, it is important to understand how well-planned urban environments might improve, and reduce inequalities in, quality of life (QoL). Although studies suggest city-level characteristics hold independent influence on QoL, they generally lack a theoretically informed approach to understanding how the whole city landscape might be implicated, have paid scant attention to inequalities in QoL and often focus on small numbers of cities or countries. We applied theory and methods from landscape ecology to explore associations between cities' land cover/use, residents' reported life satisfaction and within-city socio-economic inequalities in life satisfaction. We joined individual-level responses to the European Urban Audit (EUA) Perception Surveys (2012, 2015) with city-level data from the European Urban Atlas classifying land cover/use into 26 different classes. Our sample included 63,554 people from 66 cities in 28 countries. Multilevel binary logistic models found that specific land use measures were associated with life satisfaction, including the amount of a city which was: residential (OR:0.991, 95%CI 0.984–0.997); isolated structures (OR:1.046, 95 CI 1.002–1.091); roads (OR:0.989, 95%CI 0.982–0.996); pastures (OR: 1.002, 95% CI 1.002–1.003) and herbaceous vegetation (OR:0.998, 95%CI 0.997–0.100). A more even distribution of land cover/use (β: 1.561, 95%CI -3.021 to −0.102) was associated with lower inequality in life satisfaction. This is the first study to theorise and examine how the entire urban landscape may affect levels of and inequalities in wellbeing in a large international sample. Our finding that more equal distribution of land cover/use is associated with lower levels of socio-economic inequality in life satisfaction supports the idea that city environments could be equigenic – that is, could create equality. Our findings can aid urban planners to develop and build cities that can contribute to improving, and narrowing inequalities in, residents' life satisfaction.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Are urban landscapes associated with reported life satisfaction and inequalities in life satisfaction at the city level? A cross-sectional study of 66 European cities

Olsen

Nicholls

Mitchell

2019

Social Science & Medicine

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“…There are diverse approaches to explaining quality of life. Glatzer [9] states that positive and negative wellbeing, as well as future expectations, define the quality of life. Thus, hopes and fears influence people's wellbeing.…”

Section: The Quality Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In terms of Sen's social choice theory [10], individuals' access to services and individuals' capabilities can be combined to reach social welfare. Furthermore, quality of life encompasses subjective and objective aspects of life [9,11], which influence wellbeing and happiness. Analyses of objective wellbeing are subjected to experts' identification of problems that may not be completely clear for the general public, such as long-term temperature change [9].…”

Section: The Quality Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, quality of life encompasses subjective and objective aspects of life [9,11], which influence wellbeing and happiness. Analyses of objective wellbeing are subjected to experts' identification of problems that may not be completely clear for the general public, such as long-term temperature change [9]. Wellbeing is also based on objective dimensions such as economic welfare and the socio-demographics of individuals [12,13].…”

Section: The Quality Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

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A Conceptual Urban Quality Space-Place Framework: Linking Geo-Information and Quality of Life

Cabrera-Barona

Merschdorf

2018

Urban Science

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Space and place are key concepts for understanding the functionality of social and environmental interactions. Cities are complex social-ecological systems where space-place interactions can be interpreted by means of quality of life. Firstly, we present several quality-of-life concepts that can be linked to space and place concepts. Secondly, we develop an analysis about space and place interactions, and how the social aspects, such as the sense of place, and physical aspects, such as urban spaces, are associated with quality of life and inclusive places. Thirdly, we state how the quality of life definitions of livability and life-ability are linked to the space and place concepts, and how this link can support the understanding of quality of life in cities, considering spatial thinking. Fourthly, we expand geo-information theories to a space-place approach of urban quality of life. Finally, we discuss how the developed conceptual framework can be applied to interpret the smart city. This paper contributes to the construction of new epistemologies that could support a more holistic understanding of the cities and a more social and humanistic use of geo-information and technology.

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“…Livability is one of the main types of quality of life, and refers to an outer quality that can influence inner qualities of life such as life satisfaction [19]. Quality of life can be interpreted as a multiscale concept that represents conditions of individuals and society [22,23], and can be defined according to Glatzer through positive and negative well-being expectations and perceptions [24]. Moreover, quality of life is also a multidimensional concept that can be interpreted by understanding dimensions of physical, material, and emotional well-being, as well as development (e.g., individual choice or competence) and activity (e.g., work, leisure) [25].…”

Section: Challenges Of Defining and Assessing Livabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing and Representing Livability through the Analysis of Residential Preference

et al. 2019

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Livability reflects the quality of the person–environment relationship, namely how well the built environment or the available services in a city fulfill the residents’ needs and expectations. We argue that livability assessment can aid the implementation of certain New Urban Agenda (NUA) goals by providing a flexible way to assess urban environments and their quality. However, a reliable and transferable assessment framework requires the key elements of livability to be defined in such a way that measurable factors adequately represent the person–environment relationship. As an innovative approach, we determined key livability elements accordingly and asked over 400 residents worldwide to evaluate their urban environments using these parameters. Thereby, we could calibrate the livability assessment workflow by including personal aspects and identifying the most relevant livability factors through an ordinal regression analysis. Next, we performed relational-statistical learning in order to define the individual and combined contribution of these statistically significant factors to the overall livability of a place. We found that urban form and mobility-related factors tend to have the highest influence on residential satisfaction. Finally, we tested the robustness of the assessment by using geospatial analysis to model the livability for the city of Vienna, Austria. We concluded that the workflow allows for a reliable livability assessment and for further utilization in urban planning, improving urban quality by going beyond simple city rankings.

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Monitoring and Analyzing Quality of Life – An Introduction

Cited by 13 publications

References 10 publications

Are urban landscapes associated with reported life satisfaction and inequalities in life satisfaction at the city level? A cross-sectional study of 66 European cities

Are urban landscapes associated with reported life satisfaction and inequalities in life satisfaction at the city level? A cross-sectional study of 66 European cities

A Conceptual Urban Quality Space-Place Framework: Linking Geo-Information and Quality of Life

Assessing and Representing Livability through the Analysis of Residential Preference

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