Abstract
Over the last decades the development and use of lifestyle typologies in housing research has grown tremendously. However, lifestyle is a complicated construct with many problems attached to it. For example, there is no consensus in the research field about what is meant by lifestyle (definitional consensus), nor what the factors are through which lifestyle is expressed and through which it can be measured (operational clarity). Despite these problems, however, lifestyle typologies are given widespread attention in the domain of housing research. It is appropriate, therefore, that this book on the methods and techniques of research into housing preference and choice dedicates a chapter to lifestyle. In contrast to most of the other methods described in this book, lifestyle research is performed using a large variety of different instruments that range from observational data and document search to standardized (Web-based) questionnaires. However, typically, respondents are placed within one of various lifestyle categories, like “down-to-earth family clan” and “city-edge dwellers,” based on their responses to a survey. It is assumed that respondents who are placed in the same lifestyle category have similar housing preferences. In this chapter, an example is provided of the development of a classification method. Furthermore, the experience with lifestyle research in practice is discussed. However, first the primary motives for the development of lifestyle typologies in the field of housing are discussed.
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Appendix 1 Overview of Lifestyle Typologies, Especially with Regard to Housing
Appendix 1 Overview of Lifestyle Typologies, Especially with Regard to Housing
Author(s) | Domain | Name | Year | Lifestyle categories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Bastiaansen (1997) | Housing | Brabant ongemonteerd | 1997 | Villager, landscape dweller, yuppie, anarchist, traditional, principled, pleasure-lover, hypermobile, attached to one place, in lodgings, idealista |
Bell (1958) | General | 1958 | Familism (a high valuation on family living), career (upward vertical mobility), consumership (striving for a high standard of living in the present) | |
De Bock and Decker (2009, Internet reference) | Interior | Around 2000 | Design-lovers, party people, modern people, status people, sensitive people, respectable peoplea | |
Bourdieu (1979) | General | La distinction | 1979 | No specific categories. Two dimensions: (1) social-economic status and (2) the orientation of the resources |
van Diepen and Musterd (2001) | Housing | 2001 | Four urban lifestyles: omni-urban lifestyle, economically necessary lifestyle, socially necessary lifestyle, non-necessary lifestylea | |
van Diepen and Musterd (2009) | Housing | 2009 | Five urban lifestyles: superurban households, economically urban households, socially urban households, nonurban households, retired households | |
Driessen and Beereboom (1983) | Housing | 1983 | Active, non-active, less active, youth, workers, practically and usefully oriented, vital-expansively orienteda | |
van Engelsdorp Gastelaars (1980) | Housing | 1980 | Reserved community members, unreserved community members, reserved city-dwellers, unreserved city-dwellersa | |
van der Flier Consultancy (2009, internet reference) | Housing | 1998 | Original urbanites, original villagers, new urbanites, new villagers, edge-city dwellers, suburbanites, immigrants | |
Fournier et al. (1992) | General | Nine consumption lifestyles | 1992 | Functionalists, nurturers, aspirers, experientials, succeeders, moral minority, golden years, sustainers, subsisters |
Gans (1968) | Housing | 1968 | Cosmopolitans, singles and childless, ethnic villagers, deprived, trapped and downward mobile | |
Ganzeboom (1990) | Housing | Empirical example | 1990 | No specific categories. Three dimensions: (1) economical hierarchy, (2) cultural hierarchy, and (3) stage of life dimension. |
Gemeente Groningen, dienst RO/EZ (van der Schaaf 2002) | Housing | Groninger methode | Around 2000 | Students, singles (young employed; not much economically active), couples (double income no kids; not much economically active; traditional households; active older people), older people (active older people; older people focused on their surroundings), families with children (not much economically active with children; traditional families, double income with kids), single-parent familiesa |
Haest (1989) | Housing | 1989 | The old guard, different sort, foreignersa | |
Inbo and I&O Research (2009, internet reference) | Housing | 2001 | Constructor, neighbor, traditional, partner, unattached, hypermobile, dynamic individualist, quiet luxurya | |
Inbo (2009) | Housing | Soulife lifestyles | Around 2009? | Individualist, intractable, hypermobile, consumerist, world citizen, opportunist, quiet enjoyer, traditional, principled, comfort-seeker, landscape dweller, villagera |
Merton (1957) | General | 1957 | Locals, cosmopolitans | |
Mitchell (1983) | General | Values and lifestyle segmentation (VALS) | 1978 | Need-driven: survivors, sustainers. Outer-directed: belongers, emulators, achievers |
Inner-directed: I-am-me’s, experientials, societally conscious. integrateds: self-integrated | ||||
Motivaction Marketing Organization (Nijhuis and Schoemaker 2002) | Housing | Segmentatie model | 1999 | Domestic types, community thinkers, down-to-earth family clan, active individualists, busy middle classes, tolerant socializers, settled idealists |
Motivaction Marketing Organization (Van der Lelij 2002) | General | Mentality | 2002 | Postmodern hedonists, post materialists, upwardly mobile, cosmopolitans, new conservatives, modern middle class, traditional middle class, leisure group |
NFO-Trendbox (2009, Internet reference) | General | Value box | 1995 | Goal-focused adventurers, sober philosophers, spiritual altruists, order and respectability, the center, uncomplicated pleasure-lovera |
National Readership Survey (2009, internet reference) | Housing | Super profiles classification | 2005 | Affluent achievers, thriving grays, settled suburbans, nest builders, urban ventures, country life, senior citizens, producers, hard-pressed families, have-nots, unclassifiable |
De Nieuwe Unie (Overboom 2003) | Housing | 2003? | Survivors, Discoverers, neighborhood focused, dynamic individualists, well-to-do families, modal seniors, well-to-do seniorsa | |
Reijndorp et al. (1997) | Housing | 1997 | Uncertain existence: house as operating base, house as mobile home; rootless existence: Pied-à-terre, guesthouse; organized existence: combination household, network household; intractable existence: self-built paradise, do-it-yourself; shared existence: income neighborhoods, undivided city; recreational existence: outdoor city, holiday destinationa | |
Reijndorp et al. (1998) | Housing | 1998 | Dwellers in new estates: outer-district dwellers, original urbanites, new urbanites, villagers, suburbanites, nomadsa | |
de Rooij and Wallagh (2000) | Housing | 2000 | Urban professionals, hypermobiles, consumentists, active adults, city ecologists | |
Stuurgroep Experimenten Volkshuisvesting (2009, internet reference) | Housing | Woningatlas Consumentgericht Bouwen | 1999 | Villager, landscape dweller, yuppie, anarchist, traditionalist, principled, hypermobilea |
Shevky and Bell (1955) | General | 1955 | Careerism, familism and consumerism | |
The SmartAgent Company (Kolpron Consultants and MarketResponse 2000) | Housing | 2000 | Dynamic individualists, free thinkers, community thinkers, entrenched, retiring group, quiet luxury | |
The SmartAgent Company (Hagen 2006) | General | Brand Strategy Research (BSR) model | 2004 | Red world, blue world, green world, yellow world |
Sobel (1981) | General | Lifestyle and social structure | 1981 | No specific categories? Relationships between consumptive behavior and socio-demographic variables |
SRI International (1989) | General | VALS 2 | 1989 | Actualizers, strugglers, fulfilleds, achievers, experiencers, believers, strivers, makers |
TNS NIPO (Hessing and Reuling 2003) | General | Waarden-segmenten in Nederland (WIN) model | Around 2003 | Hedonists, business group, broad-minded group, commited group, caring group, conservatives, balanced group, luxury-seekers |
Trendbox BV (in: Van Kralingen 2003) | General | 1995 | Modest social involvement, socially justified pleasure, concerned post-materialism, no-nonsense/dependent security, cultivated hedonism, self-conscious individualism, socially aware, religious altruisma | |
Urhahn Urban Design (1999) | Housing | 1999 | City-dweller, networker, dreamer, outdoors type, villager, do-er, comfort-based dweller, economically focused dweller, ostentatious dwellera | |
Value Group Ltd (2009, internet reference) | General | Insight value group scale | ? | Self-actualizers, innovators, esteem-seekers, strivers, contented conformers, traditionalists, disconnected |
Weber (1922) | General | 1922 | Divisions in society arising from class and status. Only illustrative examples of status groups are provided, no exhaustive categories | |
De Wijs-Mulkens (1999) | Housing | 1999 | No specific categories? | |
De Wijs-Mulkens and Ostendorf (2001) | Housing | 2001 | No specific categories? | |
Young and Rubicam (2009, internet reference) | General | Cross-cultural-consumer characterization (4Cs model) | ? | Reformer, explorer, succeeder, aspirer, mainstreamer, struggler, resigned |
Zablocki and Kanter (1976) | General | 1976 | Lifestyles determined by the economic system: property-dominated lifestyles, occupation-dominated lifestyles, and poverty-dominated lifestyles. Alternative lifestyles: regressive (hedonistic) lifestyles, etherealization lifestyles (spiritual, intellectual, monastic, and emotional lifestyles), community-based (ethnic lifestyle and communitarians), collective behavior–based lifestyles |
Note: This table is not exhaustive as typologies may have been missed while studying the literature or new typologies might have emerged since. In general, typologies have been left out that were not developed specifically for use in the domain of housing. However, some general typologies have been included, because they have had such a large impact on lifestyle research in general. Finally, the table may contain flaws as it is very difficult to obtain the correct information. It just provides an indication of existing lifestyle typologies, especially with regard to housing.
aTranslated from Dutch
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Jansen, S.J.T. (2011). Lifestyle Method. In: Jansen, S., Coolen, H., Goetgeluk, R. (eds) The Measurement and Analysis of Housing Preference and Choice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8894-9_8
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