Research On The Life Quality Of Shanghai Citizens

Cities,the centers of the nation's and local politics,economy,education,and science and technology,symbolize the civilization of the modern society.With regard to the development of humans and modern cities,the demands of humans' survival and development,and their satisfaction in real life are the basis of social development,of which the improvement of people's life quality is the ultimate goal and utmost principle.Currently,our nation is in the key period of industrialization,urbanization and the new tendency of economic development.The development of science is supposed to be aimed at the harmony of the whole society,thus,focusing on people's life quality, especially that of urban dwellers not only has theoretic significances,but offers new thinking of urban development.Adopting surveys including questionnaires and interviews,statistics,case analyses, classifications on the basis of City Ecology,Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory, Conflict Theory and Social Classification Theory,this research analyses the existence and development of cities at home and abroad,proposes a number of questions which affect city dwellers' life quality,such as water,air and noise pollutions in the environment,traffic and housing problems,and poverty,crime,unemployment and other social problems,and analyses the causes of these problems and the degrees of being affected by these problems.In this research the life quality of Shanghai citizens is measured quantitatively on the basis of 1295 groups of data in the respects of social insurance and fairness,daily consumption,urban facilities,urban environmental quality,public health conditions and education and science and technology conditions.Meanwhile,altogether 35 cities including the municipalities directly under the Ministry Government,some provincial capitals and some other cities are chosen to put into order in the respect of citizens' life quality,and Shanghai ranks the second,superior to Shenzhen.In addition,the research also uses SAS software to comprehensively classify these 35 cities,and divides the citizens' life quality into 4 classes:the 1^st class including Shenzhen;the 2^nd Shanghai,Beijing,Guangzhou;the 3^rd Tianjin,Wuhan,Dalian,Hangzhou,Shenyang, Haikou,Ningbo,Qingdao,Changsha,Chengdu,Fuzhou,Nanjing,Xiamen,Taiyuan, and Ulumuqi;the 4^th,Chongqing,Dhijiazhuang,Nanning,Changchun,Xining,Hefei, Nanchang,Xi"an,Ha'erbin,Huhehaote,JInan,Zhenzhou,Guiyang,Lanzhou, Kunming and Yinchuan.From the result of this kind of classification analysis, Shenzhen alone ranks 1^st,while Shanghai,Beijing and Guangzhou rank the 2^nd in parallel,and other cities rank the 3^rd and 4^th.Although the life quality of Shanghai citizens is rather high in our nation,the whole relative high life quality doesn't necessarily represent the respective leading positions of the ingredients of life conditions.In other words,Shanghai doesn't have utmost advantages in some indexes. For example,Shanghai still locates in a rather weak position in the respects of greenery patches per capita,the greenery coverage rate and so on,compared with other domestic cities.And in comparison with some international metropolises,not only in the economic condition,but in some natural enjoyment and the public environment of human living,Shanghai has a long way to go.Index system can only define the objective parts of the life quality of Shanghai citizens.Concerning the subjective parts such as the satisfaction degree towards the life quality and the life quality that can be perceived by the citizens,surveys and qualitative analyses are carded out.The contents include the following 6 aspects:the satisfaction degree of individual and family life quality;the satisfaction degree towards the city life conditions;the satisfaction degree towards the natural environment;the satisfaction degree towards education,public health and democracy; the satisfaction degree towards the community life and cohesion;and the satisfaction degree towards the influence of the Expo on the future life of the citizens.The results consist of two sides:on the one hand,the citizens are generally satisfied with their own life,especially in the fields of the infrastructure,medical conditions,housing and so forth;but on the other hand,there are also some aspects that the citizens are not so satisfied with,such as social fairness,public health,employment and ecology.The results reflect that Shanghai citizens focus not only on the material needs but on the spiritual needs,the society,and the environment,which indeed accord with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory;that the citizens of shanghai has led a relatively comfortable life and are coming into a real rich one;and that although it has brought people the abundance of materials,the market itself has a certain defect which displays an intertwined condition of multi-conflicts between people and the nature, and among people.Currently,to improve the life quality of Shanghai citizens,we should shift to other methods and focus on the problems of social fairness and of eco-environment.Thus,a harmonious society can be eventually constructed.Happiness index is added to this research,which studies on the individual feelings of happiness.We mainly interview a number of individual citizens.Although individual interviews cannot bring about the results of happiness feelings of the whole citizens of Shanghai,it really implies abundant information.For instance,we can find out various factors that influence the happiness feelings of different individuals,and the difference of happiness feelings under different life conditions.The factors that can influence the happiness feelings of Shanghai citizens include in general the following: health,love,social fairness,care from offspring,friends,career and the like.On the whole,those interviewees feel that they are happy.Meanwhile,this research also concerns the influences of such major events as SARS and the Expo on the life quality of Shanghai citizens to a certain extent.This dissertation elaborates Chinese people's wisdom about humans and the nature,about humans and the society,and about humans and self harmony.And through continuous self-examination and creation,Shanghai citizens,as what Aristotle said "People come to the city for the purpose of living,and people live in the city for the purpose of live a better life.",will ultimately achieve the over-all improvement of life quality.