Urban and suburban lifestyles and residential preferences in a highly urbanized society

Abstract

It is widely recognized that cities nowadays are confronted with (new) challenges like segregation and suburbanisation. This paper explores the idea that these processes are related with residential choices (or preferences) made by residents with divergent lifestyles and value patterns. The paper focuses on differences between urban and suburban lifestyles and residential preferences. Firstly the concept of lifestyles in general, and urban and suburban lifestyles more specifically, are approached. Secondly the results of a quantitative survey amongst residents within four neighbourhoods in the Ghent Region, a city in Belgium, are presented. This survey confirms that residents of urban and suburban zones have divergent lifestyles, but only for behavioural aspects, such as : private property protection, status behaviour and ecological behaviour. This results however in a social-spatial inequality and polarization between the urban centres and the suburban fringe. The shared aims amongst urban as well as suburban residents for a more secure residential environment and the ideal of the detached single-family house with private garden situated within a purely residential area, were identified as drivers for future suburban migrations. These residential preferences might cause (further) suburbanisation but do not need to lead to segregated social communities, since living with peers does not seem to be a driver for migration in Flanders, Belgium.

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