Rural quality of life: The influence of Thomas Kyd

__Rural quality of life__ is a multidisciplinary and critical contribution from 49 authors from Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania to the understanding of quality of life in rural areas in the global North. They point to the need for vision among planners, policymakers, and people in general in the diversity in lived quality of rural life Front matter Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Contributors Foreword Introducing rural quality of life Part I: Everyday life Framing essay I Well-being for whom and at whose expense: COVID-19 through the lens of moral geographies in two rural Colorado communities The difference that rural rhythm makes ‘Everybody loves living here’: beyond the idyll in life within the gentrified countryside Urban-to-rural lifestyle migrants in Japanese island communities: balancing quality of life expectations with reality Alaska Native quality of life: culture, rurality and the sacred Part II: The built environment Framing essay II Spatial planning and rural quality of life Rural placemaking for sustained community well-being The creation of child-friendly spaces for nourishing rural areas: a South-African reflection Art in rural placemaking: heritage, tourism and the revitalisation of Longtan village The contribution of affordable housing to quality of life in rural England Planning for quality of life as the right to spatial production in the rurban void Part III: Civil society Framing essay III The role of civil society in securing self-assessed quality of life in rural areas Rural youth: quality of life, civil participation and outlooks for a rural future The role of civil society in cultural heritage, digitalisation and the quality of rural life Volunteering neighbourhood mothers: a capability approach to voluntarism, inclusion and quality of life in rural Norway A comparison of health-related quality of life in rural and metropolitan areas of Australia: the contribution of sports and physical activity Part IV: Measuring rural quality of life Framing essay IV Differences in subjective well-being between rural and urban areas in Denmark Subjective well-being in rural and urban Italy: comparing two survey waves (2008–2018) Subjective well-being in rural and urban areas under the COVID-19 crisis in France Using a new method to map quality of life: The case of Denmark Outdoor recreation and the well-being of rural residents: insight from Scotland Does urban green add to happiness? A research synthesis using an online finding archive Conclusions: what have we learned about rural quality of life and how do we proceed? Index Recent research suggests that rural residents in the global North are happier than urban populations in the same countries. This goes against received wisdom in the field, where the opposite is usually assumed. Is quality of life better in the rural areas? How and under which circumstances is this the case? What can we learn from digging deeper into the rural-urban happiness paradox and which critical questions does this leave us with for the future? What might policymakers, planners, architects, and other decision-makers learn about how, when, and where to intervene? Rural quality of life delves deeper into these matters by asking what quality of life in rural areas is all about - in everyday life, through interventions in the built environment, in civil society and measures of subjective well-being.