Suburban areas are regularly stigmatized for the excessive mobility (particularly by car) that they entail. In this doctoral thesis, we took this criticism seriously and put it to the test by exploring the links between living environment and leisure mobility. While some studies have focused exclusively on the influence of socioeconomic variables (level of education, socioeconomic status, income) on household mobility, others have highlighted the influence of the urban context. We draw on this work, but with a twofold shift. On the one hand, we take into account not only the urban context common to a group of households, but also the living environment specific to each household (understood as the space normally used by the household in question in its urban context). On the other hand, we hypothesize that the spatial practices of households (both within and outside their living environment) are also based on their "relationship to their living environment." The "relationship with the living environment" is not only the result of the socio-economic characteristics of households, but also refers to their own history, their residential history, and their differentiated valuation of the functional, social, and sensory dimensions (in other words, their representation) of their living environment.
Our work therefore consisted of empirically testing the hypotheses of the influence of the urban context and the relationship with the living environment on leisure mobility. The Paris and Rome metropolitan areas, which have contrasting urban structures and models of suburbanization, constitute our study areas. For our sample, we selected families (households of adults between 30 and 45 years of age with children) and conducted surveys in nine neighborhoods (in their urban context), distinguished by their geographical location (central, peri-central, peri-urban) and their level of public transport service. Our empirical work combines three complementary approaches: a contextual approach in which we describe the functional, sensory, and social characteristics of the study areas; a qualitative approach comprising 81 semi-structured interviews; and a quantitative approach based on 2,250 telephone interviews (closed questionnaire) with households residing in the neighborhoods studied. Based on the literature, an analysis grid was used to process the interviews and classify households according to five profiles of "relationship to the living environment" based on their representations and practices in the functional, sensory, and social registers.
Our statistical results confirm the strong influence of income and socioeconomic status on leisure mobility, but also highlight the significant influence of two other variables that act separately and in interaction: relationship to the living environment and the urban context. Furthermore, by neutralizing the effect of income and socioeconomic status, the results confirm a statistically significant influence of geographic location. Residents of the city center always travel more kilometers for leisure mobility than those in the suburbs and peri-urban areas, and their overall mobility (work + leisure) is almost equivalent to that of suburban and peri-urban residents. Analysis at the neighborhood level allows us to verify the hypothesis of compensatory mobility and to identify the specific contextual factors that are decisive in the choice of leisure activities. Analysis of the context at different scales (the metropolitan area, geographical location, neighborhood, and housing) confirms the influence of important factors that explain a significant portion of leisure mobility in terms of kilometers traveled, such as the lack of quiet, green spaces, and strong community and social networks, as well as the location of leisure activities in the metropolitan area. We then observe the influence of rail transport availability, density, and housing status (owner or tenant). The type of housing (single-family home or apartment building), on the other hand, has no influence on leisure mobility.
The results obtained show the role of the relationship with the living environment in the construction of a lifestyle on which leisure mobility is based. By focusing on the relationship between households and their living environment, we can show that leisure mobility depends in particular on the image that households construct of their living environment.
Thesis defended on November 30, 2012
Keywords:
leisure mobility, practices, urban sprawl, representations, living environment, urban intensity
Doctoral school:
City, Transportation, and Territories