Planning Cities4People–A body and soul analysis of urban neighbourhoods

ABSTRACT

There is a growing interest among urban planners in identifying and reinforcing key features that differentiate a city from others. At a local level, neighbourhoods are increasingly positioned and branded, based on their distinguishing characteristics. Against this background this paper aims to contribute to a better governance of cities and urban neighbourhoods by pinpointing the determinants of citizens’ perceptions of urban quality of life. A conceptual model on neighbourhood love, comprising both body and soul constituents, is developed and empirically tested. The results show that the residents’ ‘love’ for their neighbourhood is significantly related to both its material and immaterial amenities.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban quality of life
• neighbourhoods
• city soul
• city body
• city love
• place identity
• city image
• place-based branding
• place attachment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marie Hårsman Wahlström

Marie Hårsman Wahlström is a research consultant at the Department of Strategic Social Analysis at Thyréns in Stockholm, Sweden. She holds a Ph.D from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, in social planning, and has a profound interest in planning and decision analysis with emphasis on urban and regional studies.

Karima Kourtit

Karima Kourtit is at the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS) of the division Smart Cities, at the Eindhoven University of Technology and Tilburg University, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. She has worked at the Centre for the Future of Places (CFP) of the Department of Urban Planning and Environment, School of Architecture and Built Environment at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland. She holds two Ph.D.s, in both economics and geography (with distinction), and has a profound interest in regional and urban topics. Her research interest focuses on the emerging ‘New Urban World’. Her main scientific research is in the field of creative industries, urban development, cultural heritage, digital technology, and strategic performance management. Lately, she has also been involved in the implementation of several national and international research projects and initiatives. Furthermore, she has been an editor of several books and guest editor for many international journals, and has published a wide array of scientific articles, papers, special issues of journals and edited volumes in the field of geography and the spatial sciences. She is also managing director of The Regional Science Academy.

Peter Nijkamp

Peter Nijkamp is emeritus Professor in regional and urban economics and in economic geography at the VU University, and associated with the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS) of the division Smart Cities, ‘s-Hertogenbosch (The Netherlands), Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm (Sweden) and A. Mickiewicz University, Poznan (Poland). He is member of editorial/advisory boards of more than 30 journals. According to the RePec list he belongs to the top-30 of well-known economists world-wide. He is also a fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, and past vice-president of this organization. He has served as president of the governing board of the Netherlands Research Council (NWO). In 1996, he was awarded the most prestigious scientific prize in the Netherlands, the Spinoza award.