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What makes citizens satisfied? Ecological aspects of neighbourhood satisfaction in Croatian cities in socialist and post-socialist housing estates
Published: 19.11.2025.
Jelena Zlatar Gamberožić, PhD, Mirjana Adamović, PhD and Željka Kordej-De Villa, PhD are the authors of the scientific paper entitled "What makes citizens satisfied? Ecological aspects of neighbourhood satisfaction in Croatian cities in socialist and post-socialist housing estates". The paper was published in the journal ‘Social ecology’, which is indexed in Scopus in Q4.
Abstract: Neighborhood satisfaction is one of dimensions of the quality of life. It is explored in relation to the perception of life satisfaction in urban areas, and regarded as an indicator of the quality of housing policies. Nowadays especially, the concept of life satisfaction includes ecological characteristics of the environment. T h is paper examines the ecological aspects of life satisfaction in large Croatian cities (Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek), and the ecological aspects of life satisfaction in large housing estates (LHE), built both in the socialist and post-socialist periods. The research was conducted using mixed methodology; the questionnaire was applied on a sample of N=1,536 inhabitants, and focus groups were carried out with residents of socialist and post-socialist housing estates. The results show that the residents of the cities and estates are most satisf i ed with natural resources, i.e. the quality of water and air, less satisfi ed with the level of noise, and least satisfi ed with the way waste is disposed and removed. In that regard, there are statistically signifi cant differences among cities, as well as estates, in relation to the period when they were built. Regarding the green infrastructure, previous research has shown that due to a lack of planning and the market conditions of post-socialist construction, the estates from this period have defi cient green areas. Furthermore, the residents of all estates think that the greening of the environment is a priority, due to climate change, but also for ensuring the quality of life in them.
The article was one of the results of the bilateral project ‘Quality of living in the housing estates of the socialist and post-socialist era: a comparative analysis between Slovenia and Croatia’ funded by the Croatian Science Foundation.