Livable City: community, family, and individual development
What is a liveable city? Robust and complete neighborhoods, accessibility and sustainable mobility, a diverse and resilient local economy, vibrant public spaces, and affordability?
In fact, it is not just a series of uniform standards across regions, countries, community, family, and individuals, it is about people's happiness of living in an urban place. In addition to the built environment, the interactions between institutions (both formal and informal institutions), social psychology, and individuals' choices structure our perception of livability and happiness.
According to the Havard Studies of Adult Development, good social networks and family relations are important for happiness. Therefore, I am seeking answers from a social aspect, from the roles of social integration, community cohesion, family integration to individual perceptions. In Asia such as China and India, family and family networks are the most important social resource and support. However, rapid urbanization is reframing the social structure of migrants. The migration for better education, work, and opportunities due to regional differences within a county also increase the mobility and uncertainty of communities. All of these phenomena remained one question: we have better housing and work, do we feel happy in an increasingly modern yet strange and uncertain city?
I am approaching this question by answering these two research question by using different datasets
How much do the social determinants of urban residents’ satisfaction with their urban communities in general at city and neighborhood levels influence their happiness?
How much do migrants’ access to public services and their local
engagement in urban communities impact on their family integration?
The concern of livability also inspired me to investigate the possible effect of uncertainty--neighborhood insecurity, conflicts, and mitigations such as Smart cities missions and big data application. Please click the pages about my study about slums in India and international development.