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[Extract:] In their agenda-setting book on the future of Australia cities, Weller and Bolleter (2013) contemplated Australia's rapid and continual growth and its implications for the future Australian landscape. Setting views about a Big Australia to one side, these trends present Australian cities with some immutable challenges. Will Australians have to adapt to a deteriorating quality of life as cities accommodate this growth? Will the extra accommodation be built in the precincts where jobs are concentrated? Can cities grow to quarter more and more people without losing their liveability? Are there any special issues to consider in tropical Australia, a region that has experienced high population growth over the past decade and where the government has earmarked future development (Australian Government, 2014)?

Cities and countries around the world are focused on enhancing their living conditions through ways that go beyond the brick and mortar of urban planning. Just like in other highly-urbanised cities, life and living in Singapore is highly dependent on many other dimensions such as health, access to various services, social interactions, inter-group relations and community bonds. Social and behavioural factors will need to be incorporated when designing and implementing policies and interventions to enhance liveability. This invaluable book, based on the proceedings at the Behavioural Sciences Institute Conference 2014, documents an exchange of ideas among practitioners, academics and public intellectuals on liveability in Singapore. The book is organized into four parts. Part I provides an overview of liveability issues. Part II examines liveability from the perspectives of health and urban planning. Part III analyses the relationships linking quality of life to social class and social services. Part IV addresses specific questions on liveability in terms of public transport, cost of living, government's public communications, role of free market values in town planning, civil society, citizen well-being and whether there is a psychological gulf between government and people. This book will provide the reader valuable perspectives, an increased understanding of issues related to the liveability in Singapore and many potential applications to reflect on

How does a city make sound policy decisions on sustainability and governance while simultaneously promoting economic growth and development excellence? This book focuses on the major challenges that world cities are facing in such key areas as governance, social inclusiveness, infrastructural development, financial solvency as well as environmental and ecological sustainability. Based on case studies from cities in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific, this collection of essays brings together some of the top academics, professionals and policymakers from the world over and presents their views on how to best strike the balance between growth and sustainability. The range of perspectives, ideas and depth of information makes this an invaluable resource for researchers, city planning professionals and policymakers in environment, urban development and urban economic planning

AbstractThe demographic challenge of the ageing population in European countries needs to be assessed in terms of sustainability and effectiveness of public policies improving the quality of life of the elderly. The European Commission has monitored the quality of life in European cities since 2004 through a survey on citizens' perception of their liveability. Given that the assessment of life quality embeds a multitude of positive and negative aspects, we develop a composite indicator that we call the senior liveability index (SLI) to rank the performance of cities, monitor the rank changes over time and explore possible reasons.

A high level of public services in housing, transport, education and health care is essential for liveability in urban centres, as shown in this report, with the help of European data for large cities. Inhabitants of larger cities, where the housing market is heavily commercialised in terms of the share of homeownership, and where little social housing exists, have to save on consumption items that offer a higher quality of life, such as in Italy. On the opposite side, for instance, cities in Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden and France have housing markets that are much less commercialised and where a lot of social housing exists. These are exactly the urban centres that achieve the top rankings in our new Urban Public Services and Liveability Index (UPSLIde), with Austria in first place. Over time, UPSLIde trends downward, with the ratio of expenditure on the finer things in life relative to obligatory consumption items influenced by public services provision sliding from around 70% in the late 1980s to less than 50% in the 2010s. In order for this negative trend to be reversed, public services provision needs to be stepped up and, in particular, rising housing rental costs need to be countered by more social housing construction. ; Ein hohes Niveau öffentlicher Daseinsvorsorge in den Bereichen Wohnen, Verkehr, Bildung und Gesundheit ist für die Lebensqualität in urbanen Zentren unerlässlich. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt der vorliegende Bericht auf Basis europäischer Daten für größere Städte. - Wohlfahrtsstaaten, die als sozialdemokratische nordische und korporatistische kontinentaleuropäische sowie hybride Systeme klassifiziert werden, haben tendenziell ein viel höheres öffentliches Ausgabenniveau in den Bereichen, die die Bereitstellung von öffentlichen Dienstleistungen ermöglichen, als die liberalen angelsächsischen und mediterranen Wohlfahrtsregime. - Die Ausgaben der Wohlfahrtsstaaten für öffentliche Daseinsvorsorge korrelieren auch mit dem Niveau der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, wobei die Kausalität vermutlich in beide Richtungen geht. - Ebenso korrelieren die wohlfahrtsstaatlichen Ausgaben für öffentliche Daseinsvorsorge mit dem Anteil der Ausgaben der städtischen Haushalte für Freizeit und Kultur, also für die schönen Dinge des Lebens. - Geringere Ausgaben für das Wohnen ermöglichen Stadtbewohner*innen eine höhere Lebensqualität, wie das Beispiel österreichischer Großstädte zeigt. - Bewohner *innen größerer Städte mit einem stark kommerzialisierten Wohnungsmarkt mit wenig Sozialwohnungen und einem hohen Anteil an privatem Wohneigentum müssen bei jenen Konsumausgaben sparen, die eine höhere Lebensqualität ermöglichen. Ein Beispiel dafür ist Italien. - Auf der anderen Seite haben z.B. Städte in Österreich, den Niederlanden, Schweden und Frankreich Wohnungsmärkte, die viel weniger kommerzialisiert sind und einen hohen Anteil an sozialem Wohnbau aufweisen. - Das sind genau jene urbanen Zentren, die in unserem neuen Urban Public Services and LiveabilityIndex (UPSLIde) die Spitzenplätze einnehmen, mit Österreich auf dem ersten Platz. - Der UPSLIde setzt die Ausgabenanteile der städtischen Haushalte in den Bereichen Freizeit, Kultur, Restaurants, Hotels und persönliche Dienstleistungen in Beziehung zu den Anteilen der Konsumausgaben, die von der Politik für öffentliche Daseinsvorsorge beeinflusst werden, darunter jene für Wohnen, Verkehr, Gesundheit und Bildung. - Über einen längeren Zeitraum tendiert der UPSLIde nach unten. Der Anteil der Ausgaben für die schönen Dinge des Lebens zu den notwendigen, von der öffentlichen Daseinsvorsorge beeinflussten, Konsumkomponenten, sank von rund 70 Prozent in den späten 1980er-Jahren auf weniger als 50 Prozent in den 2010er-Jahren. - Um diesen Negativtrend umzukehren, muss die öffentliche Daseinsvorsorge ausgebaut und insbesondere den steigenden Wohnungsmieten durch mehr sozialen Wohnungsbau begegnet werden.

Improving urban liveability and prosperity is commonly set as a priority in urban development plans and policy around the world. Several annual reports produced by international consulting firms, media, and global agencies rank the liveability of cities based on a set of indicators, to represent the quality of life in these cities. The higher is the ranking, the more liveable is the city. In this paper, we argue that such quantitative approaches to framing and addressing urban liveability challenges leave little room to reflect on people's experiences of this liveability, which cannot be expressed through numbers. To illustrate our argument, we draw on empirical evidence of urban liveability challenges in access to water and land in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, ranked recently as the most liveable East African city by various global agencies and media outlets. By showing that increasing the number of water connections does not guarantee improved access to water and sanitation in the long run, first, we demonstrate how urban liveability challenges are tightly linked with land-title issues in the city. Second, we highlight the political game-playing between the central government, the opposition, the traditional leadership, and the slum dwellers in governance processes of service delivery. Finally, by arguing that urban liveability can be enhanced by broadening political participation in city development planning, we discuss some of the strategies that can be used by communities to make collective claims towards improving their quality of life and the environment.

Our world is increasingly complicated. Globalization has immersed us in the chaos of people, markets, information, publications, but ultimately, we are always more alone. We listen to the radio, television, we go to the cinema, we spend more and more time on social media, we respond to strangers who don't care about us, but, in this way, we lose the true friends. It becomes difficult to open up ourselves or understand the others. In fact, a very sad phenomenon is appearing. People, especially VIPs, talk about their sexual tendence, about their illnesses on the social media; it appears also a lack of respect of others, because many speak only to gain notoriety. These words fall on deaf ears. We need lively participation, especially in societies that undergo a very rapid ageing processes and a phenomenon of intense urbanization. We need to return to the "village" where everyone knows each other, where everyone is interested in common problems, and where the support is always mutual.

AbstractThis article develops a distinctive foundational analysis of what is loosely termed the 'everyday economy'. The 'cost of living crisis' is analysed as an acute crisis of household liveability which overlays a decade‐long chronic crisis. This is caused by the crumbling of all three pillars of liveability: disposable and residual income, essential services and social infrastructure. Mainstream economists and politicians fail to understand or respond to these chronic problems because they continue to assert and assume that higher wages will deliver better living standards. Effective response requires not only a reset of central state policies, but also a rethinking of politics so that government recognises and empowers the diverse and distributed sources of social innovation.