Research plan

1.4.1 Research gaps and expected added value

This thesis focuses on gaining a better understanding of lifestyles within the context of sustainableurbanliving. The research gaps treated in this thesis concern the exploration of sustainable urban lifestyles within human-environment systems, sustainability criteria and market acceptance of sustainablerealestatefunds(S-REFs),andstakeholders’ views on the scenario assessment of a large urban redevelopment area (Erlenmatt).

Social structure approaches as well as lifestyle research have failed to cover some research gaps. Social structure approaches and also lifestyle research tend to neglect the influence of the environmental system in which people live on their thinking and behaviour. Much lifestyle research has neglected the idea that not just parts of the human system, but also the environmental system influences thinking and behaviour. How sustainable urban dwellers live is dependent on personal and environmental factors that comply with processes known from HES research. In addition, much lifestyle research has focused on people’s need for distinction as a driver of their social identity, but neglected the need for affiliation. The mutual dependency between identity and everyday life that signals a particular lifestyle has

become blurred in modern society, which is characterized by an ever-growing level of individualization (Giddens, 1991). “Lifestyle” thus has become a buzzword for marketing purposes, signalling a need for distinction expressed by consumer goods. Also, much lifestyle research has focused on patterns of behaviour but neglected patterns of thinking, which are the drivers of behaviour.

All of these research gaps affect the sustainability of urban systems. This thesis tries to close some of these research gaps from an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspective, sothat human-environment systems can be planned to be more sustainable. This approach expects added value for different kinds of science and practice:

1) Added value for lifestyle research in sustainable urban systems:

The thesis aims to enrich the interdisciplinaryinterface of lifestyle research. While much lifestyle research is focused on human systems, many of the environmental properties that shape human decision-making have been neglected. Moreover, the thesis explores human- environment systems of sustainable urban lifestyles that integrate habits, habitus, andthe needsfordistinction,affiliationandidentificationwithinpsychologyandsociology.

2) Added value for inter- and transdisciplinary research on urban planning:

Lifestylesarecrucialformodellingdifferenttypesofbehaviourthat are subject to science and practice. Thethesisaimstobringlifestyleresearchtodifferentacademicdisciplinesandurban planning practice. Further benefits are expected for the sustainable development of urban systems, building projects, property investment, and individual behaviour.

3) Added value for psychological research on human-environment systems:

Resultsfromdifferentnaturalandsocialsciencesaretakenintoaccountforputtinglifestyleinto adecision-theoreticframeworkofhuman-environmentsystems.Theseresults will help explain decision-making processes in property investment and urban planning. The added value lies in understanding the cognitive and institutional drivers of market acceptance of sustainable real estate funds (S-REFs), as well as the presentation of a detailed individual assessment and social conflict analysis of urban planning scenarios.

1.4.2 Research questions and hypotheses

What role do cognitive drivers play for sustainable transitions in housing and infrastructure developmentthatare successful in a market economy? To contribute to the researchquestion ofifandhowinvestorsconstructlifestyles,theresearchlogicofthisthesis elaboratesonhow lifestyles can be understood from an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspective on human-environment systems in order to foster a sustainable urban development. This thesis applies an analysis and classification of the lifestyle concept, an examination of their relevance in specific planning situations, and transdisciplinary support for an urban redevelopment project. The thesis rests on three research contributions: An overview of lifestyle research, an empirical study of sustainable real estate funds, and a scenario assessment of a future urban district. Table 1.2 provides an overview of the research questions and hypotheses of the different contributions.

1.4.3 Research contributions

Thethesisconsistsofthreeresearchcontributions(cf.Tables1.2and1.3, for an overview):

1) Lifestyle research: The contribution provides a theoretical basis for understanding lifestyles in human-environment systems, and prepares the theoretical background in psychology and sociology. A multitude of empirical results from traditional strands of lifestyle research give interdisciplinary evidence for planning sustainable urban transitions of urban systems. It gives a summary of the development and state of traditional lines lifestyle research, and a theoretical preparation of empirical steps in this thesis.

2) Sustainable real estate funds: Sustainable real estate funds are a facet of the environmental components that influence lifestyles. Sustainable real estate funds (S-REFs) are as yet vaguely defined, and the market acceptance of such finance instruments is still largely unknown. There is need for sustainable, future-oriented and responsible investments (Wiener, 2006), and to evaluate finance products and risk according to sustainability criteria (Koellner et al., 2005; Weber, Scholz & Michalik, 2010). This contribution provides a catalogue of sustainability criteria for sustainable real estate funds, and evidence for the market acceptance of such funds. The influence of cognitive drivers, institutional context and

socio-demographic controls on decisions to invest, investment volume and acceptance of return shortfalls will be investigated.

3) Scenario assessment: Multi-criterion assessments are a component of analytical mediation in area development negotiations (Scholz & Tietje, 2002, Loukopoulos & Scholz, 2004). Thecontributionincludeswhetheradetailed individual assessment and a social conflict analysisusingdesirability,utilityandprobabilityassessmentscaninformurbanplanning.