Quality of life is associated with the term good life; when we evaluate the quality of life, we evaluate how good it is. The central element of the objective (spatial) dimension of quality of life is the phenomenon of a good place as a place in which there is lived a good life to a varying degree. The paper aims to calculate the index of quality of life at the micro-level of all 6251 municipalities in the Czech Republic based on the indicators of a gold standard and derived indices of higher hierarchical levels of districts and regions and expression of their spatial differentiation. The calculation of the index of quality of life implies that the quality of life in villages is generally higher than in the cities; however, the highest is in large cities with a population of over 100,000 and in small towns with a population of 5000 to 10,000. Quality of life in the Czech Republic is substantially spatially differentiated at all hierarchical levels.

Murgaš F., Klobučník M.: Does quality of place affect well-being? Ekológia (Bratislava), Vol. 35, No. 3, p. 224-239, 2016.An important methodological question in the general discourses concerning the quality of life is scale and mutual relationship of its two dimensions. In this article, the subjective dimension is understood as well-being; data from its spatial differentiation in districts of the Czech Republic were obtained from a face-to-face interview. The objective dimension is understood from the geographical aspect as quality of a place; it is quantified by the indicators of the golden standard of quality of life. Data from its spatial differentiation in districts of the Czech Republic are secondary. The article aims to compare the data of well-being and quality of a place for all the districts, with a premise of a higher level of well-being in the districts with a higher quality of a place, and vice-versa. This would answer the question of whether the quality of a place affects well-being.Key words: quality of life, good life, quality of a place, well-being, golden standard of quality of life.

Under the influence of globalization and state integration processes, the importance of a border as a barrier is gradually decreasing. Borderlands are still perceived as specific phenomena, however, not only in terms of historical development but especially in the context of their changing impact on the daily lives of their inhabitants. Along with EU enlargement, the de-bordering process has also become significant in many countries where the borderland played an important role in the past. These include the V4 countries, whose borderlands are the object of this research. In this article we analyze these areas on the basis of selected socio-economic indicators, with a focus on change in the period 2001–2011. As indicated by the Analysis of Variance, the results show the significantly differentiated development of the borderlands, in terms of the individual values of indicators both within the borderland of the EU member states, as well as along the external border of the EU.

Quality of life research responds to the growth of urbanization in the world by increasing the focus on the quality of urban life; however, the dominant applied research tends to be without conceptualization of the quality of urban life. The aim of this paper is to answer the question whether the quality of urban life exists as an original, separate part of the concept of quality of life, or whether only the quality of life or the well-being of a certain city exists. The authors argue that the quality of urban life exists as an original category of quality of life and their beliefs are based on the fact that it can be measured separately. The quality of urban life is holistic, co-existing with the quality of life. The city from the point of view of quality of life research is a place, and the quality of urban life is the satisfaction with life in a city and the quality of place in it. This approach is applied to the quality of urban life and its measurement in the city of Liberec. The results are implications for policy-makers and urbanists.

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the history of one of the world's greatest multi-stage bicycle races, the Tour de France, by mapping all the stage finish places from the first race in 1903 to the present. On the one hand, there is a long list of places that the Tour de France has visited just once in its whole history, but on the other, there are also several places that different editions include fairly regularly. Since the Tour de France is one of the most watched sports events on the planet, spatial variability is a good means for promoting the different regions of France and the surrounding countries where individual stages have been held. The organisation of individual editions does not depend on the existence of purpose-built sports stadiums but makes use of the existing infrastructure and settlement structure that have developed over long periods. By showing the finish places, we are able to capture not only the frequency of the inclusion of the places in the race, but also show the success of cyclists from different countries at each stage finish and thus identify the countries that have historically been most successful at winning stages.