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Assessing Inequalities in Wellbeing at a Neighbourhood Scale in Low-Middle-Income-Country Secondary Cities and Their Implications for Long-Term Livability

To ensure future sustainability, cities need to consider concepts of livability and resident wellbeing alongside environmental, economic and infrastructure development equity. The current rapid urbanization experienced in many regions is leading to sustainability challenges, but also offers the oppo...

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Autores principales: Cinderby, Steve, Archer, Diane, Mehta, Vishal K., Neale, Chris, Opiyo, Romanus, Pateman, Rachel M., Muhoza, Cassilde, Adelina, Charrlotte, Tuhkanen, Heidi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8651492/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34901259
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.729453
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author Cinderby, Steve
Archer, Diane
Mehta, Vishal K.
Neale, Chris
Opiyo, Romanus
Pateman, Rachel M.
Muhoza, Cassilde
Adelina, Charrlotte
Tuhkanen, Heidi
author_facet Cinderby, Steve
Archer, Diane
Mehta, Vishal K.
Neale, Chris
Opiyo, Romanus
Pateman, Rachel M.
Muhoza, Cassilde
Adelina, Charrlotte
Tuhkanen, Heidi
author_sort Cinderby, Steve
collection PubMed
description To ensure future sustainability, cities need to consider concepts of livability and resident wellbeing alongside environmental, economic and infrastructure development equity. The current rapid urbanization experienced in many regions is leading to sustainability challenges, but also offers the opportunity to deliver infrastructure supporting the social aspects of cities and the services that underpin them alongside economic growth. Unfortunately, evidence of what is needed to deliver urban wellbeing is largely absent from the global south. This paper contributes to filling this knowledge gap through a novel interdisciplinary mixed methods study undertaken in two rapidly changing cities (one Thai and one Kenyan) using qualitative surveys, subjective wellbeing and stress measurements, and spatial analysis of urban infrastructure distribution. We find the absence of basic infrastructure (including waste removal, water availability and quality) unsurprisingly causes significant stress for city residents. However, once these services are in place, smaller variations (inequalities) in social (crime, tenure) and environmental (noise, air quality) conditions begin to play a greater role in determining differences in subjective wellbeing across a city. Our results indicate that spending time in urban greenspaces can mitigate the stressful impacts of city living even for residents of informal neighborhoods. Our data also highlights the importance of places that enable social interactions supporting wellbeing–whether green or built. These results demonstrate the need for diversity and equity in the provision of public realm spaces to ensure social and spatial justice. These findings strengthen the need to promote long term livability in LMIC urban planning alongside economic growth, environmental sustainability, and resilience.
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spelling pubmed-86514922021-12-09 Assessing Inequalities in Wellbeing at a Neighbourhood Scale in Low-Middle-Income-Country Secondary Cities and Their Implications for Long-Term Livability Cinderby, Steve Archer, Diane Mehta, Vishal K. Neale, Chris Opiyo, Romanus Pateman, Rachel M. Muhoza, Cassilde Adelina, Charrlotte Tuhkanen, Heidi Front Sociol Sociology To ensure future sustainability, cities need to consider concepts of livability and resident wellbeing alongside environmental, economic and infrastructure development equity. The current rapid urbanization experienced in many regions is leading to sustainability challenges, but also offers the opportunity to deliver infrastructure supporting the social aspects of cities and the services that underpin them alongside economic growth. Unfortunately, evidence of what is needed to deliver urban wellbeing is largely absent from the global south. This paper contributes to filling this knowledge gap through a novel interdisciplinary mixed methods study undertaken in two rapidly changing cities (one Thai and one Kenyan) using qualitative surveys, subjective wellbeing and stress measurements, and spatial analysis of urban infrastructure distribution. We find the absence of basic infrastructure (including waste removal, water availability and quality) unsurprisingly causes significant stress for city residents. However, once these services are in place, smaller variations (inequalities) in social (crime, tenure) and environmental (noise, air quality) conditions begin to play a greater role in determining differences in subjective wellbeing across a city. Our results indicate that spending time in urban greenspaces can mitigate the stressful impacts of city living even for residents of informal neighborhoods. Our data also highlights the importance of places that enable social interactions supporting wellbeing–whether green or built. These results demonstrate the need for diversity and equity in the provision of public realm spaces to ensure social and spatial justice. These findings strengthen the need to promote long term livability in LMIC urban planning alongside economic growth, environmental sustainability, and resilience. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-11-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8651492/ /pubmed/34901259 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.729453 Text en Copyright © 2021 Cinderby, Archer, Mehta, Neale, Opiyo, Pateman, Muhoza, Adelina and Tuhkanen. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Sociology
Cinderby, Steve
Archer, Diane
Mehta, Vishal K.
Neale, Chris
Opiyo, Romanus
Pateman, Rachel M.
Muhoza, Cassilde
Adelina, Charrlotte
Tuhkanen, Heidi
Assessing Inequalities in Wellbeing at a Neighbourhood Scale in Low-Middle-Income-Country Secondary Cities and Their Implications for Long-Term Livability
title Assessing Inequalities in Wellbeing at a Neighbourhood Scale in Low-Middle-Income-Country Secondary Cities and Their Implications for Long-Term Livability
title_full Assessing Inequalities in Wellbeing at a Neighbourhood Scale in Low-Middle-Income-Country Secondary Cities and Their Implications for Long-Term Livability
title_fullStr Assessing Inequalities in Wellbeing at a Neighbourhood Scale in Low-Middle-Income-Country Secondary Cities and Their Implications for Long-Term Livability
title_full_unstemmed Assessing Inequalities in Wellbeing at a Neighbourhood Scale in Low-Middle-Income-Country Secondary Cities and Their Implications for Long-Term Livability
title_short Assessing Inequalities in Wellbeing at a Neighbourhood Scale in Low-Middle-Income-Country Secondary Cities and Their Implications for Long-Term Livability
title_sort assessing inequalities in wellbeing at a neighbourhood scale in low-middle-income-country secondary cities and their implications for long-term livability
topic Sociology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8651492/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34901259
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.729453
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