Intergenerational quality of life 2014 - Diversity between urban and rural areas (OA edition)

Full edition for public use. In sociology, diversity is a concept, which emphasizes the differentiation and acknowledgement of group as well as individual characteristics. A generation is usually defined as sequences of birth cohorts. Each generation shares certain experiences, values and attitudes. Hence, intergenerational diversity can be characterized by socio-structural and cultural change as well as by changes in individual life events and historical backgrounds. Quality of life subsumes objective, subjective, individual and collective perspectives as well as material and non-material aspects, like for instance physical and emotional health, social interactions, environment and general living conditions. Diversity due to the spatial dimension is captured with a system of urban-rural typologies. Furthermore, the three classes of different population densities (sparsely, less densely and densely) are expanded by three generations (16-34, 35-64 and older than 65) to a 3x3 matrix to analyze intergenerational regional diversity. Specifically, the interviews focused on infrastructural aspects such as availability of medical care, personal contacts, social integration as well as general health and quality of life.