COOPERACIÓN ENTRE INDIVIDUOS

The trend of city centre living, mainly driven by young professional single person households, has raised a number of demographic, cultural, economic, and social issues in the central areas.

Firstly, looking from the demographic perspective, the proportion of young professional single person households has sharply increased in many global cities since the 1990s. While pensioners are traditionally the largest living alone group, the number of young people living alone, aged between 25 and 44, has sharply increased in the recent times (Bennett and Dixon, 2006). This trend has been attributed to a combination of a number of factors such as lifestyle changes, women’s economic independence, and a stronger stress on ‘self-actualisation’

(Falkingham, 2012; Klinenberg, 2012). Secondly, the rise of the creative class has been a significant cultural factor, and this population is highly related to the young professional population in the city centre. From the economic perspective, shifting to post-industrial societies has caused the re-structuring and re-vitalization of the economy in the city central areas, fostering growth in the economic sectors of service and knowledge (Lash et al., 1993, Drucker, 1994). The re-development of economy has led to an emergence of many jobs in the city, attracting many people, especially young professions to come into the central area. It has consequently brought about the economic revitalization in the areas (Nathan and Urwin, 2005).

In addition to this, the young and professional city centre dwellers who mainly live alone have emerged as a major activator of economy. They tend to spend more money on eating out and

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enjoying social activities than people living with family members. Companies started to recognize their purchasing power and endeavour to target them (Klinenberg, 2012). Finally, looking from the social perspective, a new version of communities (larger and weaker) has been created mainly by the young and professional singletons in the city centre (Florida, 2008). In line with the community, there have been diverse discourses on the human relationship between new and traditional communities, and social and psychological issues of living alone.

‘Affordability’ is also an important issue in the city. Many city residents, especially younger singletons, find it hard to afford to live in the city centre because of highly increased housing cost.

2.6.2 Implications

Along with the urbanization and re-development in the city centre, it is certain that the rise of young and professional single person households has been dominant in the global cities. The major stakeholders such as policy makers, developers, urban designers and architects have focused on the urban trend. Policy makers and developers have turned their attention to implementation of policies and developments that meet the real estate economic environment for the young and solo dwellers in city centres, while the need for spacious living space mainly for three or four person households can decrease. Also urban designers and architects have focused on present proposals that catered for realistic demands of the solo dwellers and their lifestyle, satisfying their physical and emotional aspirations.

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As the population of young people living alone in city centre has increased, the emergence of socially negative phenomena has resulted in disrupted social connectedness such as personal conflict, poverty, and lack of social support, and solo living is related to suicidal thoughts and behaviours (You et al., 2011). In order to solve this social disconnectedness, research using state-of-the-art technologies such as social media should be conducted in cooperation with experts of ICT. This kind of social technology can improve the circumstance of current solo living households into the smart environment of single person households. In conclusion, the phenomenon of the increase in city centre living has influenced a wide range of fields including economic, social, policy, and built environments, and has made diverse stakeholders related to the fields focus on the issues such as urban planning, housing design, ICT, and anti-social thoughts or behaviours.

2.6.3 Projections

It is expected that the trend of increase in young professional singletons in city centre will continue in the near future, based on many reliable studies (OECD, 2013, Barber, 2007, Byun et al., 2015, Klinenberg, 2013). Researchers and the stakeholders should turn their attention on three major perspectives in order to deal with the dynamic social trend. The first consideration is the housing quality and design issue for the increasing population in the city centre. Although residential properties have been supplied into the city centre housing market in order to keep pace with the increases in the young singletons during the period of urban redevelopment since the mid-1990s, there seem to be many drawbacks of housing in design and quality aspects.

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Therefore, it is possible to focus on the housing issues to improve the quality of residential environments for the singletons. The second consideration would be the human relationship issue. In this individualized society, living alone can potentially make a person isolated and this disrupted social connectedness can cause anti-social problems such as loneliness. Within the context, well-designed housing and urban plans would help the singletons to overcome such adverse effects. The third consideration is the issue of affordable housing for young singletons.

Since the worldwide economic recession in 2007, it has been quite hard for many young professionals to buy even a small flat in the city centre. In this context, researchers should give increasing priority to investigate the influence of the recession on the built environment from economic perspectives, and practitioners have to put their attention on improving current urban planning and housing design to supply affordable housing into the market, mainly for the increasing number of young singletons in city centres. Based on the information, the next chapter will explore built environment and urban design issues for the young professional singletons in city centres as well as the emergence of new housing for the solo population.

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3 CHAPTER 3