Investigating the Relationship Between Quality of Life and City Love in Shandiz

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning, Art and Architecture Faculty, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

Abstract

Suppose city love, which depends on citizens’ appreciation of the city’s quality of life and interactions with its soul and body, emerges in citizens’ being. In that case, it can act as a competitive benefit and cause an independent, distinctive nature for the city, regardless of the importance and size of neighbouring cities. Hence, using citizens’ perceptions, this study aims to assess the subjective urban quality of life and city love in Shandiz, which has preserved its independent nature despite being located in the close adjacency of Mashhad, to see if these two subjective phenomena are aligned with the city’s distinctive nature. Therefore, a questionnaire was first made and distributed randomly among 404 citizens. Using inferential and descriptive statistics, results indicated that individuals’ dissatisfaction with the quality of the city’s body is compensated by their appreciation of the city’s soul, which has caused a higher perception of urban quality of life than average. Residents' love of Shandiz is also more than average regardless of their neighbourhoods and being native or immigrant. The effective role of the city soul on city love and the indifference of the city body mean that city love can compensate for the materialistic deficiencies of small cities. Despite being aware of shortcomings, a citizen in love with her city can cause the independent, distinctive nature of the city owing to her attachment to the city's soul. However, the city body should not be ignored because city love tends to diminish along with the increase in awareness.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 20 February 2025
  • Revise Date: 28 April 2025
  • Accept Date: 29 April 2025

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