Rural quality of life / / edited by Pia Heike Johansen, [and four others].

• TeilnehmendeR: Johansen, Pia Heike,
• Place / Publishing House: Manchester, UK : : Manchester University Press,, [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (488 pages) :; illustrations (black and white).

The 2020 World Happiness Report suggests that rural residents in Northern and Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand are generally happier than their urban counterparts. Similar findings have been reported in country-level studies and broader regional research, especially in Europe. Such findings go against conventional wisdom in the field and represent something of a conundrum to researchers and policymakers alike: the rural-urban happiness paradox. Is quality of life really better in the countryside? How and under which circumstances is this the case? Did influential writers like Edward Glaeser get it all wrong when suggesting that the city had now triumphed? What can we learn from digging deeper in the rural-urban happiness paradox and which critical questions does this leave us with for the future? What might policymakers, planners, architects and other influential actors learn from such an exercise? The purpose of the proposed book is to delve deeper into these matters by asking what quality of life in rural areas is actually all about. Since 2018 a cross-disciplinary team of researchers from four research environments at three Danish universities has been carrying out an ambitious research project to do just that. In this edited volume their findings are presented alongside chapters written by specially commissioned international authors from across Europe, North America, Asia and Africa.

Table of Contents

Foreword - Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins1 Introducing rural quality of life - Pia Heike Johansen, Jens Kaae Fisker, Henrik Lauridsen Lolle, Anne Tietjen and Evald Bundgård IversenPart I: Everyday lifeFraming essay I - Pia Heike Johansen, Jens Kaae Fisker and Martin Phillips2 Wellbeing for Whom and at Whose Expense: COVID-19 through the Lens of Moral Geographies in Two Rural Colorado Communities - Michael Carolan3 The difference that rural rhythm makes - Pia Heike Johansen and Jens Kaae Fisker4 "Everybody loves living here": beyond the idyll in life within the gentrified countryside - Martin Phillips, Darren Smith, Hannah Brooking and Mara Duer5 Urban-to-rural lifestyle migrants in peripheral Japanese island communities: Balancing quality of life expectations with reality - Simona Zollet and Meng Qu6 Alaskan Native quality of life: Culture, rurality, and the sacred - Maria Christina Crouch and Jordan P. LewisPart II: The built environmentFraming essay II - Anne Tietjen and Jens Kaae Fisker7 Spatial planning and rural quality of life - Mark Scott8 Rural placemaking for sustained community well-being - Anne Tietjen and Gertrud Jørgensen9 The creation of child-friendly spaces for nourishing rural areas: A South-African reflection - Elizelle Juanee Cilliers and Menini Gibbens10 Art in rural placemaking - Meiqin Wang11 The contribution of affordable housing to rural quality of life in England - Nick Gallent12 Planning for quality of life as the right to spatial production in the rurban void - Nils BjörlingPart III: Civil societyFraming essay III - Evald Bundgård Iversen13 The role of civil society in securing self-assessed quality of life in rural areas - Evald Bundgård Iversen, Michael Fehsenfeld and Bjarne Ibsen14 Rural youth: Quality of life, civil participation, and outlooks for a rural future - Anders Melås, Maja Farstad and Svein Frisvoll15 The role of civil society in cultural heritage, digitalisation, and the quality of rural life - David Beel and Claire Wallace16 Volunteering neighbourhood mothers: A capability approach to voluntarism, inclusion and quality of life in rural Norway - Kjersti Tandberg and Jill Merethe Loga17 A comparison of health-related quality of life in rural and metropolitan areas of Australia: The Contribution of Sport and Physical Activity - Rochelle Eime, Jack Harvey, Melanie Charity and Hans WesterbeekPart IV: Measuring rural quality of lifeFraming essay IV - Henrik Lauridsen Lolle18 Differences in subjective well-being between rural and urban areas in Denmark - Henrik Lauridsen Lolle19 Subjective well-being in urban and rural Italy: Comparing two survey waves (2008-2018) - Federica Vigano, Enzo Grossi and Giorgio Tavano Blessi20 Subjective wellbeing in rural and urban areas under the Covid-19 crisis in France - Marta Pasqualini21 Using a new method to map quality of life - Rolf Lyneborg Lund22 Outdoor recreation and the wellbeing of rural residents: Insight from Scotland - Kathryn Colley, Margaret Currie & Katherine N. Irvine23 Does urban green add to happiness? - Ruut Veenhoven, Nivré Claire Wagner and Jan Ott 24 Conclusions: What have we learned about rural quality of life and how do we procede? - Pia Heike Johansen, Anne Tietjen, Evald Bundgård Iversen, Henrik Lolle and Jens Kaae Fisker - Index.