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Inhabitants' relationships with their urban environment in a large (Rome) versus a small (Lecce) Italian city are compared by a multiplace analysis. The inhabitanV city relationship is studied first at the intraplace and then at the interplace level of analysis with reference to three urban places: the neighborhood, the center, and the periphery. According to the place-theory, which assumes activity to be one of the main constitutive components of place, activities performed by two samples of 434 inhabitants (Rome) and 120 inhabitants (Lecce) were taken into consideration. Each resident was asked to complete a structured questionnaire and to state how often he or she performed each of the listed activities in the three main places considered. Both the intraplace and the interplace analysis have pointed out some general and some other specific features that equalize or differentiate the inhabitant/city relationship according to city size. They refer to the way the city tends to be built up as a multiplace system in the residents' experience through their systems of activity, and as a function of their sociodemographic charactenstics such as age and sex. On the whole, small city inhabitants tend to have: (a) more integrated urban experences between different places and between home and neighborhood; (b) higher relevance of interpersonal socialization activities, especially in the neighborhood; and (c) urban activities and conditions characterized by less urban isolation.

The ambivalence of attitudes toward urban green areas is investigated through a cross-sectional survey carried out in the city of Rome ( N = 500). First, the dimensional structure, and then the personal tendency to hold ambivalent attitudes were analyzed in relation to: (a) broader human values and environmental worldviews (such as biospheric value orientations, ecocentrism vs. anthropocentrism) and (b) specific daily residential experience about urban green areas (perceived quality of neighborhood green areas and self-reported frequency of use of green areas). Results show two separate dimensions (moderately correlated) for attitudes toward urban green areas. The two dimensions are interpreted as measuring appreciation and devaluation of the presence of nature in the city, respectively. They showed different patterns of correlations with the other social-psychological factors considered. Moreover, people with more anthropocentric and apathic worldviews and with egoistic values manifested higher degrees of ambivalence in attitudes toward urban green areas, whereas a less straightforward relationship was found with daily residential experience. The implications of these results for the understanding of people's relationship with urban green areas are discussed.

This article presents the validation by confirmatory factor analysis of abbreviated versions of instruments focusing on the neighborhood residential level, perceived residential environment quality indicators (PREQIs), and neighborhood attachment (NA). A sample of 1,488 residents in various neighborhoods of 11 Italian middle- and low-population cities filled in a questionnaire including 12 scales ( N = 158), 11 PREQ scales, and 1 NA scale. The sample was randomly split-half in a calibration sample and a validation sample. Results showed good fit indexes for factorial structures including overall 19 PREQIs and 1 NA indicators, each one composed of three or four items ( N = 66). Despite the high reduction of items, the shortened PREQIs and NA yield good or at least acceptable internal consistency, and fulfill convergent and discriminant construct validity criteria. Hence, they are well suited for use in research designs focusing on multiple measures of environmental quality of residential places.

Two field studies examined the relations between environmental concern, regional identity, and support for the institution of natural protected areas. Multiple regression (Study 1, N = 316) and structural equation modeling (Study 2, N = 157) were performed to assess the role of general and specific proenvironmental attitudes and regional identity in predicting participants' support for two new protected areas in Italy. As expected, results show the positive role of general and specific proenvironmental attitudes, as well as the positive role of regional identity, in predicting support for the protected areas considered. Implications of the results for the enhancement of public levels of consensus in the designation and management of natural protected areas are discussed.

Within place theory, the research investigated relationships between activities carried out in a place and evaluative aspects of the same place. In the study, 152 inhabitants, ages 18 to 55, all living in the same neighborhood of Rome (Italy) were sampled by sex. An individual questionnaire included three scales to measure frequency of activities (23 items for neighborhood, 32 items for city center, and 11 items for suburbs) and a 47-item scale to measure degree of satisfaction/dissatisfaction toward various aspects of neighborhood. Multivariate data analyses identified four groups of inhabitants (neighborhood confined, marginal escape users, multiplace hyperactive, and quality users), each characterized by a specific pattern of multiplace urban activity. Each group was characterized by sociodemographic and/or residential variables. Finally, each group was also characterized by a specific pattern of neighborhood evaluations, with respect to three main aspects (building/population density and uninhabitability, social-spatial insecurity, and functional inadequacy/unavailability).

The aim of this article is to propose a contextual approach to the study of crowding, taking into consideration the sociophysical unity of the place where crowding occurs. The study presented here is focused on a specific urban place (a neighborhood in Rome) inside a large metropolitan area. Its aim is to investigate the relationship between negative evaluation of social density (crowding) and inhabitants' residential satisfaction. The perception of crowding expressed by the inhabitants was studied in relationship to (a) the patterns of the evaluations involved in the residential satisfaction about the neighborhood, (b) the spatiophysical features of the place considered, and (c) the sociodemographic and residential characteristics of the inhabitants. The results point to the strong saliency of the crowding evaluation within (a) overall residential satisfaction and (b) the inhabitant's concern with the spatiosocial openness-closedness of the neighborhood environment. The findings are discussed, pointing out the interest in a contextual approach to crowding.

Urban Diversities - Environmental and Social Issues -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Environmental and Social Diversities in the City -- Diversity in Theoretical and Methodological Approaches -- Analysing Urban Diversity -- Regarding the Question of Evidence -- Time, Market Pressures, and Urban Regeneration -- Regulating Augmented Public Spaces -- Diversity in Urban Landscapes and Perceptual Approaches -- Visual Information in the Built Environment and its Effect on Wayfinding and Explorative Behaviour -- Perceptual Constancy Between Users from Different Countries in Commercial and Historic Streetscapes -- The Influence of Environmental Attributes on Social Interaction Between Different Socioeconomic Groups -- A Description of Incongruous Architectures and Related Observations -- Diversity in Urban Green Spacesand Well-Being -- Green Areas and Housing's Habitability -- Green Spaces, Vegetation, and Well-Being in the Housing Environment -- Soundscapes Within Urban Parks -- Are ''Attractive'' Built Placesas Restorative and Emotionally Positiveas Natural Places in the Urban Environment? -- Diversity in Lifestyles andUrban Sustainability -- A Room with a View -- Consumption and Electric Powerat Home -- Collective Motivation for Managing Our Common Environment -- The Ecological Concern in Consumer's Choices of Organic and Genetically Modified Food Products -- Diversity in Social Groups and Inclusive Urban Environments -- Children in the Neighbourhood -- Fencing in the Bay? Place Attachment, Social Representations of Energy Technologies, and the Protection of Restorative Environments -- From Divided Space to Shared Space -- Authors -- Index.

This article starts from the hypothesis that the arrangement of a specific domestic environment such as the living room has an internally coherent and organized character and that the different modes of implementing it can be interpreted as implicit, culture-specific rules that people apply to satisfy a set of environmental needs. In particular, differences and similarities between two different national contexts (France and Italy) are discussed in relation to the need to ensure, by means of living room arrangement, a certain degree of aesthetic enjoyment by the inhabitants and a suitable setting for interpersonal relationships.

Research teams in five countries (France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, UK) developed in common a comparative study on individual attitudes and behaviors towards the environment, and on the importance of environmental issues in the media of these countries. The sample was composed of 742 subjects, teachers and engineers. Results presented here focus on a cross-countries comparison of the media analysis and the questionnaire data. Important differences are observed between the level of pro-environmental behaviors and the nature of their determinants.

It is thought that a dichotomy exists between two apparently contradictory belief systems: the so-called "Human Exception Paradigm" (HEP)—an anthropocentric belief system—and the "New Environmental Paradigm" (NEP), of ecocentric nature. The aim of this article was to test the presence of an integrative, nondichotomic, New Human Interdependence Paradigm (NHIP) and its influence on water conservation practices. The NHIP envisages interdependence between human progress and nature conservation and conceives it as a dynamic process of integration and incorporation of human needs into natural processes. Seven hundred and fifty-nine individuals living in cities of France, Italy, Mexico, and India responded to items of a purposively developed measuring instrument (the NHIP scale), as well to items of the HEP-NEP scale. They also self-reported the frequency of water conservation actions at their households. The NHIP coherently emerged from its observed indicators and it was a slightly better predictor of water conservation than the HEP-NEP scale.

Biodiversity loss is a widely debated world problem, with huge economic, social, and environmentally negative consequences. Despite the relevance of this issue, the psychological determinants of committed action towards nature and biodiversity have rarely been investigated. This study aims at identifying a comprehensive social-psychological profile of activists committed to biodiversity protection and at understanding what determinants best predict their activism. A questionnaire investigating relevant social-psychological constructs identified in the literature on environmental activism was administered to 183 outstanding leaders (vs. non-leaders) in biodiversity protection across seven EU countries. Leaders (vs. non-leaders) in biodiversity protection showed, among other constructs, higher scores on environmental values, attitudes, identity, perceived control, a feeling of union and spirituality with nature, and willingness to sacrifice for their cause. Results are discussed within the theoretical framework of a motivation model of committed action for nature and biodiversity protection. Applications of the results are also proposed.