Abstract
This study examines the relationship between residential environmental satisfaction, social capital, and place attachment. Previous studies on place attachment and residential environments have not fully considered the components of residential environments or executed an integrated analysis. This study includes diverse aspects of residential environmental satisfaction such as accessibility, comfort, and safety, which permits a comparison of the influence of each element. Furthermore, this study examined the mediating effect of social capital between residential environments and place attachment. Online surveys were conducted with 750 residents in the metropolitan city of Seoul, Korea, and mediation regression analysis as employed. The results indicated that residential environmental satisfaction had a positive effect on place attachment. In particular, accessibility had the greatest effect on place attachment. Furthermore, social capital had a mediating effect on all sub-components of residential environments. Today, many countries, including China and India, pursue and experience rapid urbanization much like Seoul, which has undergone it over several decades. However, this causes a variety of urban problems that might hinder long-term sustainable development. Therefore, this study suggests that the importance of qualitative development for sustainability should be recognized and incorporated together with quantitative development.
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Data availability statement
The data sets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to researchers’ private property but can be made available by the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Notes
Larsen et al. (2004) categorized social capital into bonding and bridging social capital and explained collective action as a result of bridging social capital.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government presents “Community Rebuilding” and “Social Integration” for a sustainable future as the main goals of urban regeneration projects. This concept means pushing for customized regeneration based on local identity, forming a cooperative system among NGOs, corporations, and residents, directly agonizing over local problems, and providing solutions (Urban Regeneration Project Homepage: uri.seoul.go.kr).
The village community project began in 2012, and it aims for a society that rebuilds the relationship between neighbors and takes care of them in solidarity with the neighbors. More than 130,000 residents (2015) are participating in community gatherings and activities (Seoul Community Support Centre Homepage: seoul.org).
The jury of LEEKUANYEW world prize made the following comments on why the Seoul Metropolitan City was selected. “The Seoul Metropolitan Government has prepared a framework for urban planning that can improve the quality of life by introducing a method of regeneration through citizen participation instead of a complete withdrawal.” In addition, they explain to other cities with the will to change that the Seoul Metropolitan City can be a role model (leekuanyewworldcityprize.com.sg).
Macromill Embrain is a research company located in Korea. It mainly carries out data collection through online surveys and has about 1 million of the country's largest online panels.
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Funding
This study (Moon-Gi Jeong) was funded by BK21PLUS of the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea (No. 21B20151413334).
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Lee, KY., Jeong, MG. Residential environmental satisfaction, social capital, and place attachment: the case of Seoul, Korea. J Hous and the Built Environ 36, 559–575 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-020-09780-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-020-09780-2