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With the majority of people living in cities it has become increasingly important to examine the relationship between the qualities and characteristics of an urban setting and the perceived satisfaction of its users. Discourses on Quality of Urban life (QOUL) show that the preponderance of existing empirical studies and measurement frameworks have been developed based on Western case studies or standards. Rapid urbanisation of cities in Africa and Asia, however, has dramatically impacted the use of space, and in many cases has resulted in intense urban transformations that impacted communities. This prompts questions about the quality of life (QOL) of residents and the liveability of their environments. Thus, this research argues that although there are many aspects of urban life that are pan-cultural, there are also culture specific features that make urban life unique in each city or setting. Consequently, QOUL studies should balance universal values and context-specificities. Following identification and critique of QOUL models, the paper calls for a new model to examine context specificities. The model aims to highlight the important role that context and culture play in urban life while underscoring the relevant core dimensions of QOUL studies.

One of the characteristics of our age is urbanization and the increase in the population of cities and the development of small and large cities. In fact, the sustainable development of a city, which in its general sense means all-round growth and expansion without contradiction, with two main goals: (1) improving the quality of life in terms of the capacity of the environment and (2) responding to the needs of the present generation without restrictions for the future ones. But according to the fifth wave theory, entering the first edge of the future from 2020 to 2030, with the development of urbanization, we are witnessing instability in recent decades. Depletion of forests, thinning of the ozone layer, accumulation of greenhouse gases, noise pollution, threatening air pollution in cities are among these indicators in urban areas. Other important indicators also show the social and economic instability of the world community. The increase in poverty, economic growth without job creation, increase the gap between developed and developing countries, social disintegration, and the sense of citizenship of the residents of local communities and the class gap are among these indicators. Therefore, since 1970, with the advancement of technologies, today the realization of urban development depends on attention to the factors of innovation, digitalization, and intelligentization. In the concept of development, aspects, domains, and scales become important. This improvement of the current situation will be realized when it brings all-round intelligence without conflict and contradiction in meeting the tangible and intangible needs of this society. Growth in material and spiritual aspects, from local to global scales and in different economic, cultural, educational, social, technological, and even political fields. Therefore, paying attention to the quality makes the concept of development more effective. These qualities are aligned with the concept of sustainability. In this chapter, U-city, smart sustainable mobility through 5th Wave, i-Sustainability Plus, and doost cultural theory (DCT) will be probed as a new concept of urban living for blue-green smart city and mobility. In addition, challenges made some countries not to prefer to utilize smartness and ubiquitous idea as a tool for their problems, will be explored.

Nowadays, sustainable, clean, inclusive, innovative, and smart mobility in addition to urban transformation is required to achieve sustainable development as a path to preserve the world for future concerns and improve quality of life at the present, even to be kept up with growing citizens' needs. Mobility as an infrastructure component plays fundamental roles in urban transformation, and economic development. In this chapter, and based on the 5^th wave theory, related theories, models, and concepts, modern, clean, and inclusive mobility founded on high future of 4th technologies (which is called 5th technologies), digitalization, smartness, sustainability, and CSR 2.0 strategies is declared as proper clean mobility technologies to create sustainable and smart cities. Such smart cities are able to deal with challenges made by rapid, unplanned urbanization and globalization to achieve sustainable development. In this research, roles of inclusive and smart mobility systems as path to create modern and sustainable urban areas to make the world more sustainable and livable for living are declared. Literature reviews, case studies, interviews, and questionaries are applied as main methods to recognize inclusive and modern mobility and its roles in urban transformation to achieve sustainable development. This chapter is based on know-how and do-how of the author Prof. Hamid Doost on sustainability such as cooperating with Danish Sustainable Platforms Company, working with Erasmus Plus as an academic leader in Germany since 2017, cooperating with Copenhagen's former mayor and researching on sustainability. In this chapter, impact of sustainable mobility, sustainable buildings, and smart cities on CSR 2.0 and social responsibility, how these parameters improve sustainable development and sustainability in social responsibility, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and how social responsibility could influence humanities are explored.

The purpose of this study is on the social aspects of regeneration of historical neighborhoods in Iranian cities. For this purpose, the authors investigated the effect of the social capital of the residents of historical neighborhoods in Tehran on their subjective quality of life and on their willingness to continue living in these historical districts. This study was motivated by the fact that the primary issue in regeneration of Tehran’s historical districts is to stimulate the residents’ desire to continue living in their neighborhoods, thereby preventing the population from decreasing.

A review of the theoretical literature revealed that the subjective quality of urban life could act as an intermediary construct that explains the link between social capital and willingness to continue living in a district. With this assumption, the authors administered a questionnaire to 389 residents of different historical neighborhoods who had been randomly selected by cluster sampling. The analysis of the data and the relationships among the constructs was conducted using structural equation modeling.

The results suggest that increase in the participants’ social capital, including neighborhood bonds, civic participation, social networks and trust, could increase both their life satisfaction (i.e. subjective quality of urban life) and their willingness to live in the historical district. As indicated by the structural model of this study, the social capital both directly influences willingness to continue living and has an indirect effect on it through the intermediary construct of subjective quality of urban life.

The findings of this study can help the policymakers of historical districts in Tehran to determine high-priority strategies for regenerating these districts. Some of the most practical policies that can be applied to the context of Tehran include provision of facilities for enhancement of social networks and bonds, formation of non-governmental organizations and using neighborhood bonds to improve the environmental conditions of neighborhood units.

This study has several advantages. First, the measures used that were taken from the literature have been adjusted to the context of the study with the help of a group of experts. In other words, although the constructs have their roots in theory, their measures are of a local and context-based nature. Second, the obtained results would direct the current approaches to regeneration of historical districts in Iran, which primarily have a physical, economic and elitist basis, towards additional social and participatory approaches.

How do we make sense of urban life in the past? What do we do when we study urban history, and to what extent do our methods fully capture the complexities of historical city living? These are crucial questions for any scholar interested in the historical dimensions of urban experience. Notwithstanding the interest of most urban historians in the relationship between the physical form of urban space and its experience by inhabitants and visitors, very few scholars have written histories that systematically integrate these two areas of inquiry. In this chapter, we argue that such research requires a method and an accompanying tool that can analyze historical urban life in a more integrated, holistic way. We propose a way forward by introducing the Time Machine platform as a scalable data visualization and analysis tool for researching everyday urban experience across space and time. To illustrate the potential we focus on a case study: the area of the Bloemstraat in early modern Amsterdam. Unpacking a section of the Bloemstraat, house by house and room by room, we show how the Time Machine forms an instrument to connect spatial layouts to the arrangement of objects and to the practical and social use of the space by the inhabitants and visitors. We also sketch how this tool illuminates more dynamic spatial and temporal practices such as how people, goods, and activities are connected to locations in the wider city and beyond.

This paper interrogates the impact of spatial transformations on urban life. It explores the level of individual and group satisfaction and sense of well-being within the urban public realm; this is undertaken by reporting on the outcomes of an assessment study of three key public open spaces in Belgrade, developed from a quality of urban life (QoUL) perspective.

A systematic multilevel assessment method is utilised, with the aim of determining the material and immaterial elements that can contribute to an individual's sense of comfort within a public space. The study places emphasis on the functional, social and perceptual attributes as they relate to the physical characteristics of three assessed spaces.

The assessment study resulted in a systematic overview of the different attributes of the three assessed spaces. With various performance levels within each set of attributes, the study identifies key challenges and problems that could lead towards determining possible opportunities for future local urban interventions and developmental actions.

With the shifts in policies and the associated governance process that redefined the outlook of previously enforced development and urban growth in the last two decades, the capital of Serbia, Belgrade, has undergone significant spatial changes. This has resulted in a certain level of fragmentation in the urban fabric, leading to a number of challenges concerning public health, well-being, safety, accessibility, comfort and urban mobility, to name a few, that need to be better addressed and understood within the local context.

This chapter aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the urban outcomes of smart city projects, focusing on their primary objectives. The first objective is to facilitate the management and flow of information, data, and resources to enhance resource efficiency, sustainability, and the quality of life for citizens and stakeholders. This chapter offers insights into the urban objectives of smart city projects within the local ecosystem, with a specific emphasis on digital and key urban outcomes. It provides an overview of the digital outcomes, including the advancement of digital systems for safety and urban monitoring, the provision of customized digital services, and the promotion of citizen engagement through digital platforms. This chapter also evaluates the environmental outcomes of smart city projects, such as improved quality of life, increased urban efficiency, and contributions to a sustainable environment. To provide a well-rounded understanding, interviews with policymakers and city managers, as well as case studies from cities like London, Medellin, Helsinki, Singapore, Girona, and San Diego, are incorporated. Furthermore, this chapter incorporates data and findings from top-tier international journals to provide a clear understanding of the impact of smart cities on the local ecosystem.

The nature of immigration to the United States has varied tremendously over the course of the last 100 years. While the rate of immigrants in comparison to the total population was as high as 14% in the early 1900s, it steadily declined due to regulations passed at the beginning of the First World War reaching its lowest point in 1970 at less than 5% (Bernard, 1998). Yet, ever since the early 1970s, in response to the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments that replaced national-origin quotas with a single annual worldwide ceiling for all other immigrants while eliminating any numerical limitations for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, the number of immigrants has been continuously on the rise. In 1996, about 1 of every 10 residents in the United States was foreign born. This is exemplified by the fact that more than one fourth of the present foreign-born population of the United States arrived after 1990 (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2004).