Urban environmental quality and human well-being: a social geographical perspective

Concern over the quality of modern life is a characteristic of contemporary society. This paper explains the social geographical approach to research into quality of life and urban environmental quality. A five-dimensional model for quality of life research is presented, and a number of key conceptual and methodological issues examined. Two exemplar case studies are employed to illustrate the application of the five-dimensional social geographical perspective in a real world context. Finally, the potential usefulness of quality of life research is assessed, and several conclusions advanced for future research.