Umut Türk (p), John Östh

Ioana Bejenaru

This study investigates the deviation between male and female life expectancy in Sweden using a super local measure. Unlike previous studies that used larger geographic units, we focus on bespoke neighbourhoods by a k nearest neighbour approach to capture more precise information about the impact of socioeconomic and environmental factors on life expectancy. We employ multilevel models to isolate the effects of specific environmental factors such as natural amenities, urbanization, and farm domination and also socioeconomics on life expectancy. Our results show that neighbourhoods dominated by natural amenities, such as lakes and rivers, have a positive effect on female life expectancy but a negative effect on male life expectancy. We also find that urbanization has a negative association with life expectancy for both men and women, but the effect is stronger for men. In detail the main findings of the study are:

Using a super local measure of life expectancy, we found significant differences between male and female populations in Sweden.
Neighbourhoods situated around ocean, sea, lakes, and rivers have longer life expectancy for women, but shorter life expectancy for men.
The dominance of urban qualities in a neighbourhood is associated with a decrease in life expectancy, particularly for men.
We found a negative association between life expectancy and farm domination in both male and female populations.
The use of multilevel models and null models helped to uncover the effects of specific neighbourhood characteristics on life expectancy, while controlling for other factors.
Our study provides new insights into the relationship between environmental factors and life expectancy and highlights the importance of using small geographic units to capture more accurate information about local variations in life expectancy.

Ruut Veenhoven (p)

Umut Türk

Arthur Grimes (p), Conal Smith, Kimberley O'Sullivan, Philippa Howden-Chapman

Ruut Veenhoven

The micro-geography of wellbeing within city neighbourhoods is receiving increased attention (Kourtit et al., 2021). Both the physical ‘body’ of neighbourhoods and the personal experiences (‘soul’) of residents are important in analysing these micro features; relevant considerations include welfare, inclusiveness, social capital, cultural identity and sustainability factors.

When dealing with these micro-geographic features, researchers must define what they mean by ‘neighbourhood’ as this choice may be important in framing the analysis. In this paper, we define neighbourhoods as public housing communities within a localised area. Using survey data, we analyse wellbeing, and factors that affect wellbeing, across seven different New Zealand public housing communities. The communities are spread across three separate urban areas, four of which are in greater Wellington. We have comparison data for private renters adjacent to one of the public housing areas in Wellington to serve as a control neighbourhood. Many of the survey questions are drawn from Stats NZ’s General Social Survey so we can compare outcomes for public housing tenants with data collected for other tenants. Wellbeing questions include a standard evaluative subjective wellbeing (SWB) question on life satisfaction, a question on “whānau” (wider family) wellbeing, the WHO5 questions on current mental wellbeing, and a eudaimonic wellbeing question relating to control over one’s life.

Our key research question asks how these different facets of wellbeing relate to tenant characteristics and to each of the domains included within our survey. Tenant characteristics include: age, ethnicity, gender, income, length of existing tenancy, educational qualifications and employment status. The domains cover tenant views on: house quality, energy use, transport, neighbourhood and community, social capital, health, cultural attachment, spirituality, discrimination and trust (including in the public housing provider).

We test whether relationships between the various facets of wellbeing and the domains vary according to tenant characteristics, by the governance type and/or city of the public housing, and by private versus public rental housing tenancy. The analysis feeds into a broader research programme that investigates wellbeing effects of public housing and urban renewal. By focusing on the neighbourhood level, we can contribute insights that relate to the micro-geography of each community, so complementing analyses of public housing impacts that have been conducted at larger scales.

Reference
Kourtit K, Nijkamp P, Wahlstrom M. 2021. How to make cities the home of people – a ‘soul and body’ analysis of urban attractiveness. Land Use Policy, 111, 104734.

Fredrik Carlsen, Stefan Leknes (p)

Arthur Grimes

A large literature has studied the urban gradient in subjective well-being, but few studies have examined for whom urban areas are good places to live. Using Eurobarometer survey data 2010-2019, we find that, compared to other sociodemographic groups, young, single and well-educated persons report relatively higher life satisfaction in cities than in non-city areas. The difference between men and women in preferences for city living depends on country income: men (women) prefer city living in countries with the lowest (highest) income per capita. The Nordic welfare states exhibit a distinct pattern as couples with children and the less educated report relatively higher life satisfaction in cities than singles and the well-educated.

Fabio Tejedor (p), Eveline van Leeuwen, Joppe van Driel

Stefan Leknes

GDP is a primary societal and economic indicator which plays an essential role in our society. It has dominated main government agendas to foster societal progress based on the economic growth paradigm. However, GDP cannot capture the whole spectrum of the complex economic system. At lower spatial levels, such as regions or cities, GDP has more profound limitations because it does not account for rising inequality, informal economies or environmental damages. In this article, we investigate the main overlaps and differences between SDGs, Doughnut Economy and BW and how they have been operationalised into indicators for SD at the city level. In particular, we first study their theoretical origins within the Sustainable Development (SD) discussion. Secondly, we scrutinise how these approaches have been implemented as SD metrics at the national and city level. We explore the type of data, indicators and methods used to formulate SD metrics. Finally, we discuss how these approaches, seen as SD metrics, can contribute to improving urban governance for transitioning towards a sustainable urban future. To do so, we introduced four metaphors for looking at cities: machine, organism, network and melting pot. We explore how these visions can influence the current and future formulation of indicators for SD of cities through these lenses. Ultimately, we discuss how Amsterdam can adopt an improved BW measurements approach that better aligns with its main sustainability challenges.

Ioana Bejenaru (p), Bogdan-Constantin Ibănescu, Corneliu Iațu

Fabio Tejedor

Smart city has become over time indispensable for urban areas in order to develop and create an environment that generates a high level of quality of life. It makes a major contribution to the action of forming resilient communities to possible dangers that can disrupt the smooth running of things. Recent findings support the idea that the quality of life and urban smart strategies influence each other, both relying on the “sustainable development” as a common denominator. The relation between these two concepts must be present on all stages of smart insertion and on all levels, so that the process is unitary, long-term sustainable, and citizen-focused.
The main objective is to outline an overview of how the inhabitants of the city of Iași, and especially the young, include and relate to this development effort, mainly achieved through the digital component.
To do this, we rely on large-scale semi-structured questionnaire at the level of Iași urban area with the aim of obtaining data on the perception of local population on the recent smart initiatives and their impact on the overall quality of life. This is supported by the implementation of smart initiatives at an accelerated scale during the past decade, making Iasi one of the leading smart cities in Romania. The questionnaire referred to a series of initiatives frequently mentioned in newspapers, magazines, blogs, as well as in the official communiques of the authorities. The data obtained were centralized, processed and represented graphically in order to obtain relevant results.
Overall, Iasi city seems to follow a pragmatic smart path with initiatives covering a diversity of domains and fields. However, further attention should be paid to the quality of life component of these smart initiatives, as its omission could drastically reduce the long-term beneficial impact of smart strategies.