Residents' Perceptions of their Neighbourhood: Disentangling Dissatisfaction, a French Survey

Abstract

To avoid the conventional and normative pitfalls of neighbourhood satisfaction scales, the responses to a non-inductive open question identified six statistical types of resident in France. The reasons for their satisfaction or dissatisfaction reflect both personal inclinations and characteristics of the neighbourhood. By controlling for these characteristics, for the local network of relationships, for the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents and the social type of the neighbourhood, poor neighbourhoods stand apart in all six types of resident. The few reasons for contentment stem mainly from relationships with relatives and friends in the neighbourhood. The introduction of a socio-residential variable to categorise the neighbourhood socially clarifies residents' perceptions in terms of their social grade.

Perception of Insecurity in French Poor Neighbourhoods

“…One of the surprising results of a previous study, however, was the variety of opinions expressed by residents of poor neighbourhoods, ranging from emotional satisfaction to violent rejection, the main reason given for the latter being insecurity (Pan Ké Shon, 2007…”

“…One of the surprising results of a previous study, however, was the variety of opinions expressed by residents of poor neighbourhoods, ranging from emotional satisfaction to violent rejection, the main reason given for the latter being insecurity (Pan Ké Shon, 2007). In practice, around 10 per cent of the population of poor neighbourhoods complain spontaneously about insecurity (see sub-section 3.2) and report that they want to move out, although only a fraction of them actually do so.…”

“…In this study, an original methodology is applied based simultaneously on individual geocoded data, the proportion of foreigners, the unemployment rate at the neighbourhood level and an indirect indicator of perceived insecurity. is also the strongest motive for residents to move out, thus accentuating urban segregation (Taub et al, 1984;Quillian and Pager, 2001).One of the surprising results of a previous study, however, was the variety of opinions expressed by residents of poor neighbourhoods, ranging from emotional satisfaction to violent rejection, the main reason given for the latter being insecurity (Pan Ké Shon, 2007…”

Exploring the Influence of Participation on Programme Satisfaction: Lessons from the Ahmedabad Slum Networking Project

“…This literature on neighbourhood and project satisfaction illustrates that socialpsychological outcomes and physical outcomes are not synonymous; rather, satisfaction is a complex measure of socioeconomic status, social networks and individual preferences. Many of these scholars also acknowledge the difficulty in accurately measuring satisfaction (Hipp, 2010;Ké Shon, 2007;Parkes et al, 2002). As Parkes et al (2002) argue, respondents are likely to express high levels of satisfaction due to social desirability and other biases.…”

L’urbanité québécoise contemporaine

“…Aux yeux des jeunes interrogés, l'intensité et la densité de l'urbanisation, qui se reflètent dans la compacité du cadre bâti, font de la ville un lieu gris et bétonné, contrastant avec les immenses espaces naturels de l'arrière-pays québécois. Vision soutenue dans la littérature scientifique, la ville a souvent été conçue comme génératrice de pollution, d'insécurité, de stress, de perte de valeurs et d'un ensemble de problématiques sociales (Damon 2008;Pan Ké Shon 2007). Certes, les Montréalais voient de nombreux inconvénients à la vie urbaine, mais ils valorisent plus l'effervescence économique, la diversité socioculturelle et la multiplicité d'offres en services, en activités et en loisirs qui la caractérisent.…”