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Lifestyles and Life Choices

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Life-Oriented Behavioral Research for Urban Policy

Abstract

This chapter focuses on lifestyles and life choices. Although there is not a formally agreed definition of it, the ‘lifestyle’ concept—derived from sociology—might be useful in life choice studies. It highlights the importance of ‘soft’ factors next to the traditional ‘hard’ factors (e.g., demographic, socioeconomic and spatial characteristics) while explaining life choices. This chapter first provides a structured overview of the ‘lifestyle’ concept in terms of definitions and measurement methods. Two broad perspectives exists: (1) a mechanistic lifestyle approach considering a behavioral typology of activity and time use patterns, and (2) a sociographic lifestyle approach focusing on a behavioral orientations—values, attitudes and preferences—and a latent factor motivating behavior patterns. The second part of this chapter reviews how the ‘lifestyle’ concept has been used in life choice studies so far. It specifically focuses on applications in the research domains of demography and family studies, geography and urban studies, and transportation. Both perspectives are used interchangeably without little evaluation of the usefulness of various formal lifestyle classification systems. Moreover, most life choice studies consider ‘lifestyles’ as static and given, and not as something dynamic that might change over time. This calls for a more longitudinal perspective on the interaction between lifestyles and life choices. Other avenues for further research include the integration with a social network and a geographical perspective.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LISER, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    Veronique Van Acker

  2. Ghent University, Department of Geography, Ghent, Belgium

    Veronique Van Acker

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  1. Veronique Van Acker
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Correspondence to Veronique Van Acker .

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  1. Hiroshima University , Higashi-Hiroshima, Japan

    Junyi Zhang

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Van Acker, V. (2017). Lifestyles and Life Choices. In: Zhang, J. (eds) Life-Oriented Behavioral Research for Urban Policy. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56472-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56472-0_3

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