Quality of Urban Life Studies: An Overview and Implications for Environment-Behaviour Research

AbstractThe growth of urban areas presents a challenge for local governments around the world. While the challenge is particularly formidable to policy makers and planners, it offers opportunities for environment-behaviour researchers to contribute to the resolution of urban problems.. Studies focusing on the quality of urban life (QOUL) offer such opportunities. The paper first presents an overview of QOUL studies. It then describes a number of conceptual models used to test relationships between objective urban conditions and QOUL. Finally, the models are elaborated so as to illustrate the manner in which environment-behaviour research can be conducted to inform urban policy, planning, and design

Linking recycling behavior to waste management planning: A case study of office workers in Taiwan

In recent years, planners have become increasingly involved in issues related to solid waste and the need to develop comprehensive waste management programs. Policy options have been suggested for reducing consumption--an important mechanism for addressing the solid waste disposal problem. These options range from educational programs which encourage individuals and organizations to voluntarily minimize consumer waste to regulations that mandate waste reduction behavior, including recycling, resource reduction, and re-use. In deciding among policy options, planners need to understand those factors that are likely to influence these behaviors in different settings. Although there is a growing body of research covering factors which influence household recycling, determinants of recycling in the workplace are largely unknown.In this paper, a model displaying factors that may contribute to recycling behavior in the office is presented. Components of the model are then analyzed using data from questionnaires administered to 1788 office workers in 32 organizations in the Taipei metropolitan area. The role of prior recycling experience at home and the organizational and physical context of workplaces in determining office recycling rates are analyzed, as are relationships between environmental attitudes and motivations and recycling practices. Finally, policy options (i.e. educational programs, financial incentives, establishing social norms) for conserving resources through waste management are discussed in light of the findings.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/30543/1/0000176.pd

Restrictive rental practices and their impact on families

This article presents the results of a national survey about exclusionary rental policies concerning children. Based on a national sample of renters and the owners or managers of their rental units, the data document the nature, extent and magnitude of exclusionary policies, the attitudes of managers about renting to families with children, the attitudes of renters toward living near children, and the effects that these policies have had on American families. The study shows that exclusionary practices against children have increased in the past decade. The data suggest that exclusionary practices pose a real problem for many American families.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43518/1/11113_2004_Article_BF00125392.pd

Measuring urban quality of life in Istanbul

Günümüzde yaşam kalitesinin ölçülmesi konusunda araştırmacılar temelde iki konu ile karsı karşıya kalmaktadırlar. Birincisi yaşam kalitesinin anlamı ve ölçülmesi, ikincisi yaşam kalitesindeki değişikliği değerlendirmede kullanılacak ölçütler ya da göstergelerin belirlenmesidir. Bu çalışmanın amacı İstanbul halkının yaşam kalitesinin değişik boyutlarını nasıl değerlendirdiklerini irdelemek ve İstanbul’da yaşam kalitesini değerlendirmek için kullanılacak göstergeleri saptamaktır. Yirmi birinci yüzyılın başlangıcında İstanbul'da Şehirsel Yaşam Kalitesi'nin değerlendirilmesi hem İstanbul şehri hem de tüm bölge açısından önem taşımaktadır. Son 50 yıl içinde hızlı bir gelişme gösteren İstanbul’da nüfus artışı ile paralel olarak yeni konut alanları açılmış, yeşil alan kaybı oluşmuş, ulaşım sistemi genişlemiş ve yanı sıra kentsel yaşam standardında yükselme için çalışmalar başlamıştır. Öte yandan kent yaşamında konut, ulaşım, kamu hizmetleri, iş olanakları ve çevre kalitesinde görülen eşitsizlikler İstanbul’da yaşayanların yaşam kalitesini etkilemektedir. Şehir yönetimi açısından, halkın değişik kesimlerinin çevresel koşulları ne şekilde algıladığı önemli bir konudur. Kamu hizmetlerinin etkin kullanımı, seçilecek ulaşım modeli, bölgesel tesislerin kullanımı ve güvenlikten kentsel yayılmaya kadar yaşam kalitesini ilgilendiren konular hakkında halkın davranışı konusunda araştırmalara gereksinim vardır. Bu çalışma temelde bu konulara yönelik soruları yanıtlamaya yöneliktir. Özet olarak çalışma yeni yüzyıl başlangıcında İstanbul’da yaşam kalitesinin portresinin oluşturulmasına yöneliktir. İstanbul’da yaşam kalitesinin ölçülmesi çalışması İstanbul Metropoliten Planlama Bürosu (IMP) de gerçekleştirilen planlama çalışmalarının analitik etütleri kapsamında ve kısmi olarak ITU araştırma fonu desteğinde gerçekleştirilen çalışmada İstanbul’da rasgele örneklem çerçevesinde seçilen 423 noktada 1635 hanehalkı ile gerçekleştirilen anket çalışmasının bulguları konut, ulaşım, konut çevresi, komşuluk, katılım ve güvenlik, istihdam, alışveriş, rekreasyon ve boş vakitlerin değerlendirilmesi, sağlık, eğitim ve kentsel konular başlıkları altında değerlendirilmektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Yaşam kalitesi, İstanbul, şehir planlama.During the past quarter century, a number of scholars working in social sciences and planning have argued that quality of life has both a subjective dimension as well as an objective reality. Building on the seminal study  of Campbell et al (1976) that measured people's satisfactions, Marans and his colleagues began to explore quality of life issues from a conceptual and empirical perspective (Marans and Rodger, 1975; Lee and Marans,, 1980; Connerly and Marans, 1988, Marans, 2003). Their contention has been that quality of life in a particular geographic setting is a subjective phenomenon, and that each occupant of a setting may differ in his/her views about it. Furthermore, those views would reflect their assessments of a number of setting attributes that could be influenced by certain characteristics of the occupant. The model also suggests that the occupant's assessments of setting attributes are associated with the attributes themselves. A major research program that utilizes this model in measuring the quality of community life has been launched in metro Detroit (Marans and Gocmen, 2005). As part of the research program, parallel studies are underway in several world cities including Istanbul. This paper presents findings from the Istanbul study on quality of urban life. The study was undertaken as part of the Istanbul Strategic Plan prepared by the Greater Istanbul Municipality (BIMTAS, Istanbul Metropolitan Planning Office) and partially supported by Istanbul Technical University Research Fund. The key purpose of the research was to provide useful information for developing planning/design strategies that will foster sustainable urbanization through enhancing quality of life, which is one of the most important principles of sustainable urbanization. Another purpose was to explore the impact of environmental, economic, social, physical and health related indicators on quality of life satisfaction among Istanbul residents. Ultimately, the research will provide recommendations which will further enhance the quality of life in Istanbul at a number of levels, from empowering communities at a local level to participate in the evolution of their neighborhoods to influencing institutional and corporate objectives and regional and national government sustainability policies. The research will 'paint a picture' of the quality of life in Istanbul, and establishes the foundation for further future research that examines change. The primary means of measuring quality of life was the questionnaire which closely followed the protocol of the Detroit Area Study (DAS) 2001. As research method questionnaire survey was applied to measure quality of life in Istanbul. The questionnaire framework opted for is closely related to that of the Detroit Area Study (DAS) 2001 model. The DAS model attempts to capture the reality of community quality of life by exploring both objective and subjective indicators based around domains, thus providing the research with a more rounded and complete profile of communities. The DAS research program is successfully 'exported' around the world. For example, the cities of Beijing (China), Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Brisbane (Australia) (Stimson, et al, 2007) and Cape Town (South Africa), are in the process of, or are considering fielding the core module of DAS. DAS therefore provides a useful medium for future comparisons with a number of global cities. Whilst fielding the core modules of the DAS study the Istanbul Area Study (IAS) also contains a number of additional questions that are region specific thus establishing a bespoke criterion which best captures the community profile of Istanbul and issues relating to the city. Housing and residential mobility, residential history, travel demand, transportation and public services, educational services, health and health care facilities, parks and recreation, shopping and entertainment, neighborhood and neighboring, community participation and involvement, safety issues, employment and journey to work, environmental and regional issues are explored in the survey. In total 1635 households across 423 points within the city were interviewed. The contribution to the overall Istanbul strategic plan was to identify regions and neighbourhoods profiles and to map accordingly, to identify satisfaction levels of communities and identify problematic areas for households and identify regions of preference and to provide data to contribute to the residential development strategy. In this paper the methodology and initial findings of the study is presented. Keywords: Quality of Life, Istanbul, urban planning, residential satisfaction.

Objective and subjective indicators: Effects of scale discordance on interrelationships

Researchers in the social indicator movement are increasingly aware of the value of obtaining both subjective and objective measures. At the same time there is a recognition of the need to understand relationships between the types of measures. Studies utilizing both subjective and objective measures indicate that while relationships between them exist, relationships are often not strong. This paper suggests several explanations for such imperfect relationships. One is scale discordance, a term used to recognize that the territorial base of an individual's subjective evaluation may not coincide with the boundaries of the unites used for the collection of objective data. Using data from a metropolitan area study, relationships between objective measures of crime and respondents' feelings of safety are examined for people whose perceptions of neighborhoods vary in size. The hypothesis that the relationship between the objective and subjective measures is stronger among individuals whose view of neighborhood size is in line with the relatively large territorial base for objective crime statistics is tested and found to be correct. Implications of the findings for research and policy making are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43701/1/11205_2004_Article_BF00364601.pd

Work status and the quality of life

The general thesis from which this paper derived is that objective conditions are related to perceptions and evaluations of those conditions, but that such relationships are mediated by personal characteristics such as expectation and aspiration levels, and other motivational factors. The specific relationship examined is that between work status and overall life satisfaction among women. Although there is little difference in average levels of life satisfaction expressed by housewives and by women working outside the home, substantial differences emerge when women are distinguished by their motivation with respect to paid work: among women who want jobs, working women are more satisfied with their lives than are housewives; while among those who would prefer not to work, housewives are more satisfied. Evidence is also found in support of a hypothesis that work tends to be less central to the overall quality of women's lives than is true for men.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43690/1/11205_2004_Article_BF00353134.pd

Evaluating research and its uses by housing designers and managers

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Evaluating Open and Conventional Office Design

In an attempt to overcome limitations characteristics of past evaluations, a con ceptual model is presented as a guide to evaluators in collecting and analyzing data on office environments. A number of components of the model are then examined using data from a study of a new federal office building. Findings cooroborate those reported by others in showing that conventional offices are viewed more favorably by people occupying them than workers in either open or pooled office arrangements. The amount of workspace available to the worker is the most important factor associated with work station satisfaction, even after taking into account the type of work station and the workers' ratings of specific work station attributes. It is also demonstrated that people's feelings about the ambience of the agency within which they work and the architecture of the building influence their reactions to the immediate workspace. It is sug gested that space planners and designers who want their work appreciated by the user need concern themselves with the details of the workspace as well as the larger scale environment.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67299/2/10.1177_0013916582143005.pd