Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Quality of Urban Life in Socially Excluded Communities of Liberec Region

  • Original Research Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Community Well-Being Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In current research on quality of life, the emphasis is on satisfaction with life that is called well-being. At the same time, many authors reject Easterlin’s paradox, which was associated with the boom in exploring the quality of life in the 1960s and1970s in the twentieth century of modern history. In the article we understand the quality of life holistically two-dimensionally as satisfaction with life and at the same time we examine the quality of place. We examine the quality of urban life in two cities of the Czech Republic, which are different size. We focus on socially excludes communities and the quality of life of their inhabitants. We understand socially excludes communities as communities of people suffering from social and material deprivation living in a place of very low quality. At the same time, we deal with the residents of these cities who do not live in socially excludes communities. In recent years, the Czech Republic has been experiencing unprecedented economic growth, resulting in the lowest unemployment rate across the European Union. Its surprising consequence (among others) is the simultaneous growth of the number of socially excluded communities that have developed in cities or be increasing the number of people facing repossessions. In line with previous findings, we expected a large difference between the satisfaction with life in the form of ill-being among residents od socially excludes communities in two towns in the Liberec region and satisfaction with life in the form of well-being among residents who do not live in socially excluded communities. We assumed the same result in the evaluation of satisfaction with the quality of place where both groups of residents of these cities live. In accordance with that, the hypothesis is formulated. Surprisingly, however, the measurement of satisfaction with life and quality of place brought the recognition of a high level of satisfaction with life and a slightly lower but still high level of quality of place by the inhabitants of socially excluded localities. The hypothesis was not confirmed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The United Nations Development Programme use for Human Development Index interpretation, considered as analogy of quality of life, scale which divides countries into categories: (i) Very High Human Development, (ii) High Human Development, (iii) Medium Human Development, and (iv) Low Human Development (UNDP 2018).

  2. Measuring the quality of life on this Cantril’s scale is probably its most widely used non-medical type of measurement

References

  • Atkinson, S., Bagnall, A.-M., Corcoran, R., & Pilkington, G. (2017). What is community wellbeing? Conceptual review. London: What works Centre for Wellbeing. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.29797.70889.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Biswas-Diener, R., & Diener, E. (2001). Making the best of a bad Situation: Satisfaction in the Slums of Calcutta. Social Indicators Research. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010905029386.

  • Burchardt, T., Le Grand, J., & Piachaud, D. (1999). Social exclusion in Britain 1991±1995. Social Policy and Administration. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9515.00148.

  • Čada, K., Büchlerová, D., Korecká, Z., & Samec, T. (2015). Analýza sociálně vyloučených lokalit v ČR. [analysis of socially excluded localities in the Czech Republic, in Czech] Praha: GAC.

  • Corbridge, S. (2009). Poverty. In D. Gregory, R. Johnston, G. Pratt, M. J. Watts, & S. Whatmore (Eds.), The dictionary of human geography (5th ed., pp. 573–574). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahlberg, L., & McKee, K. J. (2018). Social exclusion and well-being among older adults in rural and urban areas. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 79, 176–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2018.08.007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • European Commission. (2010). Europe 2020 Strategy. http://ec.europa.eu/eu2020/pdf/COMPLET%20EN%20BARROSO%20%20%20007%20-%20Europe%202020%20-%20EN%20version.pdf. Accessed 27 Jan 2019.

  • Eurostat (2019). People at risk of poverty or social exclusion. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/People_at_risk_of_poverty-or_social_exclusion. Accessed 6 May 2019.

  • Gregory, D. (2009). Community. In D. Gregory, R. Johnston, G. Pratt, M. J. Watts & S. Whatmore (Eds) The Dictionary of Human geography. 5th ed. (pp. 103-104). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

  • Haushofer J. (2013). The psychology of poverty: Evidence from 43 countries. https://www.princeton.edu/haushofer/publications/Haushofer_2013.pdf. Accessed 27 Jan 2019.

  • Haushofer, J., & Fehr, E. (2014). On the psychology of poverty. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1232491.

  • Holden, M., Phillips, R., & Stevens, C. (Eds.). (2017). Community Quality-of-Life Indicators: Best Cases VII. Cham: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffres, L. W. (2014). Community. In A. C. Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research (pp. 1034–1036). Cham: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kraeger, P., Cloutier, S., & Talmage, C. (2017). New Dimensions in Community Well-Being. Cham: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, J. (2014). Poverty, an overview. In A. C. Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research (pp. 4981–4984). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, S. J., & Kim, Y. (2017). Achieving community well-being through community participatory governance: The case of Saemaul Undong. In R. Phillips & C. Wong (Eds.), Handbook of community well-being research (pp. 115–128). Cham: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Michalos, A. C. (2014). Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Cham: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Michalos, A. C., & Robinson, S. R. (2012). The good life: Eighth century to third century BCE. In K. C. Land, A. C. Michalos, & M. J. Sirgy (Eds.), Handbook of social indicators and quality of life research (pp. 23–62). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, T. (2016). Quality of Community Life and Whose Responsibility It Is. National research center. https://www.n-r-c.com/quality-of-community-life-and-whose-responsibil ity-it-is/. Accessed 27 Jan 2019.

  • Murgaš, F. (2019). Can Easterlin’s paradox be applied to the development of satisfaction with life or does the explanation lie in cultural geography? Geografický časopis/Geographical Journal, 71(1), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.31577/geogrcas.2019.71.1.1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murgaš, F., & Klobučník, M. (2016a). Municipalities and regions as good places to Live: Index of Quality of Life in the Czech Republic. Applied Research in Quality of Life. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-014-9381-8.

  • Murgaš, F., & Klobučník, M. (2016b). Does the quality of a place affect well-being? Ekologia (Bratislava). https://doi.org/10.1515/eko-2016-0018.

  • Murgaš, F., & Klobučník, M. (2017). Community well-being or quality of place? A few notes and their application in Czech Republic. In P. Kraeger, S. Cloutier, & C. Talmage (Eds.), New dimensions in community well-being (pp. 29–60). Cham: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Petrovič, F., & Murgaš, F. (2019). Holistic quality of life, measurement and implications. In press.

  • Phillips, D. (2006). Quality of life. Concept, policy and practice. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, R., & Pittman, R. H. (2009). A framework for community and economic development. In R. Phillips & R. H. Pittman (Eds.), An Introduction to community development (pp. 3–19). Oxon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rentfrow, P. J., & Jokela, M. (2016). Geographical Psychology: The Spatial Organization of Psychological Phenomena. Current Directions in Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721416658446.

  • Sacks, D., Stevenson, B., & Wolfers, J. (2010). Subjective well-being, income, economic development and growth. In NBER working paper series, Working paper 16441. Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research https://www.nber.org/papers/w16441. Accessed 27 Jan 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slovník sociálního zabezpečení. (online). Sociálně vyloučená lokalita. [Dictionary of Social Security. Socially excluded locality. In Czech]. Praha: The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic. http://slovnik.mpsv.cz/socialne-vyloucena-lokalita.html. Accessed 27 Jan 2019.

  • Sociofactor. (2013). Analýza sociálně vyloučených lokalit a dostupnosti sociálních služeb prevence v těchto lokalitách v Libereckém kraji. [Analysis of socially excluded localities and availability of social prevention services in these localities in the Liberec region, in Czech] https://odbor-socialni.kraj-lbc.cz/getFile/case:show/id:206646. Accessed 27 Jan 2019.

  • UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). (2018). Human Development Report. http://hdr.undp.org/en/2018-update. Accessed 27 Jan 2019.

  • Večerník, J., & Mysíková, M. (2015). Chudoba v České republice. Kritický pohled na evropské ukazatele. [poverty in the Czech Republic. Critical view on European indicators. In Czech]. Praha: Sociologický ústav AV ČR.

  • Veenhoven, R. (2013). Notions of the good life. In S. A. David, I. Boniwell, & A. Conley Ayers (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of happiness (pp. 161–173). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veenhoven, R. (2014). Quality of life (QOL), an overview. In A. C. Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research (pp. 5265–5268). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Veenhoven, R., & Vergunst, F. (2013). The Easterlin illusion: economic growth does go with greater happiness. In MPRA Paper No. 43983. Munich: Munich Personal RePEc Archive Published in: EHERO working papers: Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization, Vol. 2013, No. 2013/1 (23. January 2013). https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/43983/. Accessed 27 Jan 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, H. (2011). Quality of life of poor people living in remote areas in Hong Kong. Social Indicators Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9622-7.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers, who contributed significantly to improving the quality of their article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Technical University of Liberec, Komenského 2, 460 01, Liberec, Czech Republic

    František Murgaš & Emil Drápela

Authors
  1. František Murgaš
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Emil Drápela
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to František Murgaš.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

We hereby confirm that neither of the authors has any conflict of interest with this publication. We declare that this research was conducted in line with the Declaration of Helsinki, which explains all main rules for human research ethics.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Murgaš, F., Drápela, E. Quality of Urban Life in Socially Excluded Communities of Liberec Region. Int. Journal of Com. WB 3, 323–339 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42413-019-00040-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42413-019-00040-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation