The significance of quality of life and sustainability at the urban–rural fringe in the making of place-based community

Abstract

Understandings of community in urbanrural fringe locations in Ireland are explored in this paper. As a specific space at the interface between the urban and the rural the fringe incorporates processes of rapid physical, social, and demographic change. These give rise to a range of complex and often competing dynamics, that impact on people and place in a variety of ways. Among the main preoccupations and concerns in these rapidly evolving fringe locations are those relating to what can broadly be described as 'quality of life'. How this concept is understood across different groups situated within the spatial setting of the fringe, and how it influences the development of a sustainable community there, are central to this discussion. Drawing on household interviews from four case-study locations surrounding Galway City, Ireland, this paper examines how quality of life is experienced across a range of social and spatial dimensions that relate to these locations, and the extent to which they provide a common set of interests around which community may be built. From a wider knowledge perspective, it contributes to debates about how the concept of community provides explanatory power regarding the way in which individuals are associated with one another on the basis of a set of shared interests or concerns within a particular spatial setting.

A Values-Based Approach to Exploring Synergies between Livestock Farming and Landscape Conservation in Galicia (Spain)

“…Over the past decade, scholars have identified how the negative effects of globalization have encouraged farmers to participate in (or even initiate) programs to enhance ecosystem services [39]. Shifting from production-oriented land-use and expanding the provision of multiple ES often fosters a progressive understanding that the 'local' also, and perhaps paradoxically, contains a strong element of connectivity (among stakeholders in the region and with the 'outside world') [40] and a realization that food systems are not inevitably shaped by external forces but can created and actively reshaped through changing local practices [13,41]. This, in turn, deepens actors' understanding of how to combine human and non-human elements in order to achieve these changes [42].…”

Reimaging socio-spatial planning: Towards a synthesis between sense of place and social sustainability approaches

“…When the Brundtland Report’s definition of sustainable development was publicised, it had a global focus (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), 2015). Since then, sustainability has become part of the mainstream political debate, well-being research and urban policy discourse (Cobbinah et al, 2015; Ghahramanpouri et al, 2013; Mahon et al, 2012). Well-being research is broadly described to be comprised of three traditions – human-centred development, sustainability and community well-being – as well as four universal principles – human well-being, equity, democratic government and democratic civil society.…”

Neighborhood Variation of Sustainable Urban Morphological Characteristics

“…It hopes to establish a link between quality of urban life and environmental sustainability at the neighborhood level in terms of objective sustainability indicators referred by Marans [ 46 ]. It also attempts to examine quality of life experienced across a range of environmental and morphological dimensions that relate to 89 neighborhood communities located in both urban and urban-rural fringe, with particular focus on transport infrastructures that are strongly linked to planning [ 47 ]. The visualization tools described in this article can also serve as an initiative to a broader and deeper exploration of the multi-dimensional realm of sustainable urban morphological characteristics.…”