scholarly journals ‘Freedom From Fear and Want’ and Our Psychological Response to Environmental Changes

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zi-Han Wei ◽  
Rui Tao ◽  
Huan Liu ◽  
Shu Li

Freedom from fear and freedom from want are two of the fundamental freedoms and likely related to changes in the environment. It has usually been assumed that our subjective feelings should change accordingly with changes in the objective environment. However, two counterintuitive effects reviewed in this article imply a rather complex psychological mechanism behind how people respond to environmental changes and strive for the freedom from fear and want. The first is the ‘psychological typhoon eye’ effect, in which the closer people are to hazards, the calmer they feel. Several possible explanations have been proposed, but the mechanism behind this effect remains unclear. The findings are important for future post-disaster interventions and helpful for policy makers in risk management and researchers in risk studies. The second effect is the ‘town dislocation’ effect, wherein although inhabitants’ objective quality of life is improved during the urbanisation process, the projected endorsement and rated social ambience of town residents is lower than that of residents in the country and in the city; this effect is mediated by social support. The findings have implications for how to better assess the urbanisation process and how to improve people's affective appraisals of their living environment.

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (March 2018) ◽  
Author(s):  
S.A Okanlawon ◽  
O.O Odunjo ◽  
S.A Olaniyan

This study examined Residents’ evaluation of turning transport infrastructure (road) to spaces for holding social ceremonies in the indigenous residential zone of Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. Upon stratifying the city into the three identifiable zones, the core, otherwise known as the indigenous residential zone was isolated for study. Of the twenty (20) political wards in the two local government areas of the town, fifteen (15) wards that were located in the indigenous zone constituted the study area. Respondents were selected along one out of every three (33.3%) of the Trunk — C (local) roads being the one mostly used for the purpose in the study area. The respondents were the residents, commercial motorists, commercial motorcyclists, and celebrants. Six hundred and forty-two (642) copies of questionnaire were administered and harvested on the spot. The Mean Analysis generated from the respondents’ rating of twelve perceived hazards listed in the questionnaire were then used to determine respondents’ most highly rated perceived consequences of the practice. These were noisy environment, Blockage of drainage by waste, and Endangering the life of the sick on the way to hospital; the most highly rated reasons why the practice came into being; and level of acceptability of the practice which was found to be very unacceptable in the study area. Policy makers should therefore focus their attention on strict enforcement of the law prohibiting the practice in order to ensure more cordial relationship among the citizenry, seeing citizens’ unacceptability of the practice in the study area.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-168
Author(s):  
Viktor P. GENERALOV ◽  
Elena M. GENERALOVA

The study reveals the aspects that defi ne the concept of “lifestyle”, including the main categories: standard of living, lifestyle, quality of life and lifestyle. Insuffi cient knowledge of the mutual infl uence of people’s “lifestyle” on the typological structure of apartments and residential buildings, on the quality of the urban environment is emphasized. The infl uence of the level of urbanization of the city territory on the characteristics of the “urban lifestyle” is considered. Problematic issues are raised related to the debate on the relationship between building density and comfort and the quality index of the living environment. The main directions of fundamental research in the fi eld of architecture, aimed at the development of new types of buildings, are touched upon. The emphasis is made on the methods of using high-rise buildings for the humanization of the urban environment and the formation of a modern “compact city”.


Author(s):  
Román Quijano-García ◽  
Luis Alfredo Arguelles-Ma ◽  
Fernando Medina-Blum ◽  
Mario Javier Fajardo

The remainance and development in the market depend, among other factors, on the quality of sold products or provided services, which is a situation of concern in sectors such as tourism where globalization demands first level services, as is the case in the city of Campeche, where businessmen are investing in hotel infrastructure according to the colonial characteristics of the town. The research´s objective is to identify the incidence of leadership in the quality of services under the perception of hotel managers as responsible for the operability results. This research is a descriptive type with non-experimental transversal design, with a enumerated population; the results obtained through the quality and leadership indexes indicate that, contrary to expectations, managers consider that the provided services don´t have an adequate level of quality, and the design of new strategies is needed to improve the processes under the transformational leadership which must face problems with opportunity in order to innovate in the services of the market where they participate.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verry Lahamendu ◽  
Judy O. Waani ◽  
Aristotulus E. Tungka

China Village or Town is an urban region with Chinese as majority of the community. The China Town is located at the old part of the city of Manado and is well known as one of the oldest trade centres in Manado. As one of the urban heritage in the city of Manado, the Chinatown has unique landmarks with temples that are religious buildings for the Chinese community. With time, the quality of the environment has degraded and the image of the Chinatown has become vague.This paper investigates the existing condition of the town through site observation. It then proposes several suggestions with regard to the revitalisation of the Chinatown without discarding its existing function as a one of the trade centres in Manado. It is hoped that the revitalisation of the town would improve the quality of its urban environment that at the end would positively impact the quality of life of its dwellers, and construct the image of the city as a whole.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
KPATA-KONAN Nazo Edith ◽  
YAO N’Zué Benjamin ◽  
COULIBALY Kalpy Julien ◽  
KONATÉ Ibrahim

This article looked at the quantity and storage time of attiéké produced and sold in the town of Daloa. It also examines the microbiological characteristics of attiéké-femme and attiéké-garba from this locality during storage. The study was carried out on the one hand through a field survey carried out on the producers and sellers. On the other hand, a sample was taken from 10 sellers of attiéké-garba and 10 sellers of attiéké-woman. The study found that the women producers sell 87% of their production in the city of Daloa and export 13%. In addition, attiéké can be kept for 2 days at the producers and beyond 2 days at the sellers before their stock runs out. Therefore, a weekly production of more than 200 kg for the majority of the producers is observed. Microbiological analyses showed high levels of germs (MAG: 6.106 CFU/g; Yeasts and moulds: 2.7.106 CFU/g) for attiéké-women and (2.106 CFU/g of GAM and 1.6.103 CFU/g of Yeasts and moulds) for attiéké-garba. Total coliforms and faecal coliforms were only found in attiéké-women. No salmonella was observed. In view of the results, it should be noted that female attiéké is the most contaminated type of attiéké.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 1272-1284
Author(s):  
Jacek Szołtysek ◽  
Rafał Otręba

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has led to the widespread introduction of the principles of social isolation and drastically reduced the right of residents to use the city, limiting mobility and meetings. The article examines whether the temporarily limited mobility due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, reducing the quality of life in the city, also reduces its attractiveness. The city, assessed from the viewpoint of its attractiveness, aims to strengthen its appeal. We assume that the attractiveness of the city and assessment of the quality of life in the city are based on similar features. We sought answers to the following research questions. (1) Is it really possible to notice a decrease in the city’s attractiveness due to the pandemic? (2) Does a respondent’s opinion (belief) about the city as a living environment influence the assessment of the city in which the respondent lives? (3) Do factors describing the mobility of city inhabitants influence the quality of life? We revealed that the demographic characteristics of residents are to varying degrees related to the assessment of the attractiveness of the city. Gender of respondents has no significant influence on the assessment of the city and current place of residence, while age and educational level of education are important for this assessment. The older is the respondent, the lower is their assessment of the city. Simultaneously, the higher is the educational level, the higher is the propensity to assess the attractiveness of the city. The analysis of mobility revealed that not all examined mobility elements will equally improve the quality of life (measured by the assessment of the place of residence). Out of the 7 factors identified in the study, only 3 turned out to be statistically significant. Therefore, it can be concluded that these factors improve the quality of life of city residents.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonny S. Patel ◽  
Rebecca K. Webster ◽  
Neil Greenberg ◽  
Dale Weston ◽  
Samantha K. Brooks

PurposeResearch fatigue occurs when an individual or population of interest tires of engaging with research, consequently avoiding further participation. This paper considers research fatigue in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, to identify contributory factors and possible solutions for future post-disaster research.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on examples from the literature and their own observations from the recruitment and data collection phases of qualitative and quantitative studies, to provide an overview of possible research fatigue in the current COVID-19 pandemic, with implications for future post-disaster research.FindingsPeople affected by disasters sometimes receive multiple requests for study participation by separate teams who may not necessarily be coordinating their work. Not keeping participants informed of the research process or outcomes can lead to disillusionment. Being overburdened with too many research requests and failing to see any subsequent changes following participation may cause individuals to experience research fatigue.Originality/valueGuidelines for researchers wishing to reduce the occurrence of research fatigue include ensuring greater transparency within research; sharing of results and using oversight or gatekeeper bodies to aid coordination. Failure to restrict the number of times that people are asked to participate in studies risks poor participation rates. This can subsequently affect the quality of information with which to inform policy-makers and protect the health of the public during the COVID-19 pandemic or other public health disasters/emergencies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadi Alizadeh ◽  
Ayyoob Sharifi

Cities around the world increasingly recognize the need to build on their resilience to deal with the converging forces of urbanization and climate change. Given the significance of critical infrastructure for maintaining quality of life in cities, improving their resilience is of high importance to planners and policy makers. The main purpose of this study is to spatially analyze the resilience of water, electricity, and gas critical infrastructure networks in Ahvaz, a major Iranian city that has been hit by various disastrous events over the past few years. Towards this goal, we first conducted a two-round Delphi survey to identify criteria that can be used for determining resilience of critical infrastructure networks across different parts of the city. The selected criteria that were used for spatial analysis are related to the physical texture, the design pattern, and the scale of service provision of the critical infrastructure networks. Results showed that, overall, critical infrastructure networks in Ahvaz do not perform well against the measurement criteria. This is specially the case in Regions 1, 2, 4, and 6, which are characterized by issues such as old and centralized infrastructure networks and high levels of population density. The study highlights the need to make improvements in terms of the robustness, redundancy, and flexibility of the critical infrastructure networks in the city.


2020 ◽  
Vol 165 ◽  
pp. 04036
Author(s):  
Zheng Jia-Xin ◽  
Tu Hao-Ran ◽  
Lee Kun-Fa

Garden landscape is the basic construction of a city, which can effectively improve the ecological environment of a city, highlight the urban cultural characteristics and the quality of life of the residents. The landscape design project uses the internal space of the garden to improve the quality of the city, protect the ecological environment, improve the greening of the city and improve the quality of the urban living environment, and continue to develop green landscapes to improve the urban environment and improve the living comfort of living.


Author(s):  
Łukasz Wróblewski ◽  
Bogusław Dziadzia

The article presents the concept of sustainable development of socio-cultural capital with particular emphasis of the role of cultural institutions as factors influencing their development in a human being. In the article, the concept of social capital and cultural capital have been treated as complementary to each other, which is why they have been identified as a socio-cultural capital. Sustainable development of this capital in many cities of the world meets a number of problems reflected in the quality of life of its residents. In this article, a part of the town is analyzed which, due to political decisions made at the end of the First World War, has been divided for a hundred years into Cieszyn on the Polish side of the border and Czech Cieszyn (Český Těšín). This area is an example of how historical, political, demographic and educational conditions form the basis for the quality of socio-cultural capital. It is also an example of cooperative activities between local government institutions and third sector organizations. Despite many differences between the residents of Cieszyn and Czech Cieszyn, the conducted analysis points to the formation of a socio-cultural capital of a combining character, according to how Robert Putnam wrote about such phenomena, without neglecting the diversity of goals and interaction groups.


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