How the motive of self-actualisation influences
migration of singles and families?
Main goals of the study:
Research design
Difference between “high” and “low” amenity areas
Why people choose one place over the others?
What are the most important reasons for leaving the city?
Revealing the decision-making process
- – Motive of self-actualization ?
- – The most important factors which have an impact
- – A combination of factors and their intensity
What is self-actualization
- – “What a man can be, he must be” Maslow (1954)
- – It can be thought of as the full realization of one’s creative,
- intellectual or social potential.
- – Usually anticipated as a typical B-need
– Deficiency motivation: struggle – fill the gaps
What is self actualization (Maslow pyramid)
I use this very famous picture for this definition. Self-actualisation had been reported as a peak of all human needs which is revealed at the moment when all the other needs are fulfilled. But later research found more complex dependencies in this model.
What is self-actualization?
Maslow defined self-actualization by claiming that “what a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization” (Maslow, 1943).
In other words, for our purposes, self-actualization can be thought of as the full realization of one’s creative, intellectual, or social potential.
Can we change – our needs?
Essential hard-wired” vs. Extended “culturally created”
When we can distinguish which are “hard-wired” in ourselves and which are just a product of our culture, let’s call the first type “essential” and the second type “extended”. We cannot replace the “hard-wired” needs. But the cultural patterns can vary in different countries or cultures, and they can be changed. When society is changing in time, the extended needs are changing as well. That is the process which we are witnessing all the time. Maslow labelled the second type as superficial, but we can assume that these needs are culturally conditioned, which means it is only a part of belonging to a group. Fulfilling this kind of need helps people to feel more like a part of a group.
Conscious or unconscious
Our essential needs are usually unconscious because, at the moment when they are fulfilled, nobody thinks about them. They appear only in case when there is a deficiency. People who pay attention to their personal development heading to self-actualization, they consciously see even the needs which are already fulfilled.
B-needs (being) vs D-needs (deficiency)
The essential needs are usually labelled as deficiency needs which appear only when is the lack, and it is why they are also called D-needs. Self-actualization is usually categorized as a B-need, which is one of the needs of growth, self-development of personality. The motivation of self-actualization can be distinguished because it doesn’t come from deficiency, but it is a direction on how to find the potential of a human being. A desire for creativity can be seen in different ways. It is usually very conscious, but some people are not aware of it in spite they have this motivation, but it is hidden, and it can appear as a different motivation.
Reasons why people go to the different place are two types:
Push factors and pull factors.
Both types are based on solving the unfulfilled needs, or it might be an attempt of seeking for the opportunity for personal development, conscious or maybe unconscious.
Prague hinterland - newcomers
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Which combinations are working for different places
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How is the decision for the place made?
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– In case most increasing localities
- – In case less increasing localities
Prague hinterland newcomers
The most increasing localities are dark ones.
The most slow increasing localities are the white ones.
If you take a look at this map, you can see the obvious differences between localities. Some of them have a high rate of newcomers, and some of them are not very growing by population. There are certain features which attract people, and some of them are not that interesting. But the truth is that there is not a big difference between these localities, they are not distant, and the quality of the environment is not much different. But some of them are more attractive than others. This research intends to find more details in the set of reasons why people decide to take one place over the other.
Revealing the decision-making process
Although the final choice is only a straightforward choice about the place and the object which has been picked out, there is the whole variety of reasons in a specific order and different intensity of influence to the final solution. There will be revealed the whole process of making the decision in the single steps.
All the factors will be tested if they are significant in the specific pattern of making a choice for each group of a sample. Some of them can be taken into account, but their real impact is not necessarily visible, or some of them can be taken unconsciously without mentioning. It is the issue which should be solved in the research.
Which combinations are working for different places
How is the decision for the place made?
There is the map of Prague surroundings, mainly two important counties Prague-west and Prague-east. This circle around Prague is distant between 15-30km from the city centre. The white field is a metropolitan area, and the colour fields are specific regions, and the darker has a more significant increase of newcomers. I will take five localities in different types and find my informators in each of them.
The interviews were taken mostly in the southern part of the Prague hinterland but also in the northern region. The plan is to take five localities in every direction. Two areas will supply the south direction.
Self-actualization in a decision making process
The motive of self-actualization importance and intensity
The process of deciding the final place for living contains more types of motivation. One of them is self-actualization. This motivation is particular because it is assumed to be always present sometimes is not apparent but hidden in a different form
There might be found an intersection between people they are consciously looking for the “meaningful life” and people they don’t claim it, but they are looking for the same in spite they are not aware of it.
- An influence of technology
- Possibility of home office
Technology is changing our lives increasingly. We can observe a new trend in a society that more occupation can work from their homes. They don’t need to commute every day to their office, because they can arrange so-called “home-office”. This trend can influence the distribution of the population map significantly. The attractivity of the places might be less affected by the distance of the city in case if the newcomers have this option: home office. This phenomenon might change the behaviour of moving people.
Methodology
Reason Analysis
The study uses the specific method which combines qualitative and quantitative approach. This methodology was already used for examining residential preferences by Peter Rossi in 1955. His research was published in the book “Why families move”. First, this method was found by Paul Lazarsfeld in 1943
This method is designed to describe a decision-making process in a particular way with a special focus on the decision schemes, the places where the is the process split up to more branches which are dependent on the previous choice.
The methodological approach is organised in two phases.
I. phase
Unstructured interviews are being processed, and the results are used for creating the “accounting scheme” which means to find possible patterns with a few simple decision points.
Analysis – creating “accounting scheme”
II. phase
The results of this research will be diagrams of a decision-making process in specific cases with an “accounting scheme”. The proposed patterns from the 1.st research phase are being tested if they are working or it is necessary to make an adjustment and which specific groups are using these patterns.
Process of Gathering Data
"Tree of decision"
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ROOTS– List of push factors●TRUNK– Locality pitch●CROWN– List of pull factors
How does the process start?
Taking an action
The whole process starts at the point when people decide to move. We call it “the point zero”
How do they get there? There can be more ways.
1. When “the critical treshold” of xxx is exceeded
It means, they are simply usatisfied and they don’t think about the change but one day something important happens and this moves them to the decision to move. This is considered as a trigger for a change.
2.Gradually developing process leading to an action
Many little things are happening for a long time and it slowly comes to the decision without any milestone in their process. Or it can be a long time ago created plan, when the person always wanted to leave and it is just a last step of this plan.
The result is a decision to move
Decision making process B/B
The first step what people decide is if they want to BUY or BUILD a house.
1. Step: Defining a locality pitch
There is the certain locality pitch which can be defined just by the distance from the city or maybe they are wiling to go only to specific localities or maybe they have different specific limitations.
( I found that quite interesting connection is a direction which they take if they want to visit their parents or different relatives. Sometimes is the specific highway the last triffle in the mosaic )
Or they define just a circle around some place, or specific localities, etc.
They define their limits, financial or spatial.
2. Step: Exploring the market
It includes reading the advertisements and thinking what is important amenities of the place which worth to the visit.
Prices vs. Qualities
3. Step: Processing offers
The goal is to find an object with defined criteria (above) and decide if the objects worth to a personal visit.
The next phase is to find the one place which will be choosen from the selection of all visited places.
Necessary features for a visit
They define the set of the most important features which the place must have.
If the place goes through this filter succesfully, they will decide to visit it in person.
The process of searching the features can be emulated by simple yes/no questions which create the same pattern of a process.
There must be created the set of questions which are important and their order. It creates the pattern.
When they go for a personal visit, they must decide in all the places which one is the right one.
Diagrams
There is an approach how to analyze this process:
There are simple questions about the offered place with two options yes/no
which are taken in an account as an option for a target place.
If the place reaches the most important quality, there is a next question.
If the place doesn’t reach the important quality it is excluded from the process and the new place is coming into the game until the last place which goes through the whole process with all the answers like “yes” and this is the one which is chosen for a personal visit in the first iteration .
What are the questions?
Questions are dependent on the origins .. it means what is not liked at the original place will be probably the big drive for desires of the opposite.
The first questions are based on push factors.
Frequent yes/no questions
The order of the questions which are used as rules for decision creates the patterns
These questions are based on push factors and pull factors which are important for this specific family or couple or single
This is mostly about desired qualities
Abour landscape and environment:
No pollution, no noise
No industrial object close
Gardens or open landscape
Flat or hilly
About people:
Social environment (high prices prevention against strangers)
About infrastructure:
Transportation, Shops, schools
I take items from the real estate evaluation standards
Push factors (roots) are mainly:
PUSH FACTORS what is not liked?
Not enough space
In the flat (or house)
Outside (narrow streets)
Many people everywhere
Overcrowded city or just rush
Space:
1 – small room in their “dwelling unit” – flat,house
The question is : Is it the place big enough? (outside, inside)
1 a) is the space worthy to the money which we are supposed to pay?
(simple counting more space in the house vs. less space in the city-flat the same money)
2 – is it the desired locality? (is it about landscape or about a county?)
People:
feeling overcrowded outside their home
(multidimensional places).. there are a lot of people everywhere but it just emphasises the feeling of lonelinness … we meet just people with the same group and all the people around are at the same place in the same moment but they aren’t a part of our “tribe” so we subsconsciously feel them as a danger
if we live at the smaller place as a village, we talk to everyone we must have a talk or just an interaction and solve at the moment if this person is included in “club or not”
It means the level of insecurity about the people around me is way lower. We meet people they aren’t friendly even in the village but we know it. But when we are in the city we have no idea about many of them how should we feel about them. It means we have the feeling of alienation.
Environmental reasons:
They don’t check interactive maps about environment in Prague or anywhere else, they just feel the city as noisy or polluted. And they expect the better quality of environment in the countryside automatically. They usually don’t check the maps or applications which research this.
1. Noise
It is clearly cars. (I would like to ask someone who moved close to weir which is noisy as well, if they take it in their account)
2. Pollution
It is something which is not visible and they don’t check the real situation at the environmental portals. They just suppose that some areas are not polluted and some of them are. It is quite old prejudice which is connected with some localities and people still believe in it in spite of the reality has changed a lot. This is the reason why in CR is quite common prejudice about the polluted north and unpolluted South. The situtation in the public meaning about the localities is changing very slowly slower than the real situation
3. Rush
I am hesitating if this concept is about environment but people mention it quite often and they aren’t able explain exactly what they mean. It is just the feeling than all the people around you are in rush and you are impcatde by it in your mood.
This is quite common summary of main reasons why people don’t like living in the city and want to move. . They can be seen as roots of the decision to move. Let’s call them roots of our tree of decision.
Tree of Decision
The decision to leave a city and find a new place for living has basically
two layers: ROOTS + (TRUNK + BRANCHES+LEAVES) the upper part of the plant
The first one is the root question:
What are the reasons for leaving.
What is the main reason with the biggest importance.
Roots = push factors
The second is:
What are they looking at the new place for.
Branches = pull factors
If we think about the process of the decision we can see it as a tree. The first is like a part of the tree under the ground which means roots and the second are branches.
We can hardly find two identical trees but we can find something similar with resemblance.
It means that every family can pass through a different process of making decision. It means that the importance for some questions in this process is essential for the same group of people but the step after could be with the different priorities. we can expect the similar patterns which means that the first and the second step is the same or maybe the third, just the details have different priority.
Pull factors ( branches) are two types:
desires and limits
DESIRES:
PULL FACTORS – what is liked?
Nature
Open landscape
Rivers, mountains…etc.
Social environment
Creating community
Staying alone
The possibility of ownership
Is often portrayed as an economic factor but it seems to be much more. People usually connect this opportunity as a strong feeling of home. They say they feel more rooted when they have their own property. Sometimes it is felt like a founder of a dynasty.
The other feeling is also having the place which is governed by them. They are the owners who has the power to adjust the place according to their imaginations whatever that means.
There might be more types of approach.
The first is more about self-actualization motives like to manifest one’s creativity with building a new house or a reconstruction the old one.
The other can be about being aligned, like make an order everywhere, build everything from the beginning, maybe the part of the whole process is the destruction of an old building and replacing all the plants in the garden.
These are two extreme positions of the line, but both of them appear in the sample. Both of them impact the public space in the area in a different way.
LIMITS:
PULL FACTORS – limiting factors for choices?
All the desires have their limits. It is obviously not possible for everyone to afford everything what they desire. There is an interesting part of the decision making process how they create a balance between their desires and their limits. Which desires they are willing to sacrifice and which are essential. There is the key of distribution different types of people in different types of localities.
Money
What is wanted is too expensive
Distance
Transportation options
Local infrastructure
Availability of schools and social services
The first results of an empirical research
I have already did 12 unstructured interviews about 1-2 hours long in three localities.
These interviews were focused on their decision to choose the place where they actually live and their lifestyle before the move and after. Their values, hobbies and attitudes were also asked but mainly they talk what they felt that was the most important things which influenced their decisions.
I have found three basic groups of people they leave a city to countryside.
The first one is the majority of all I estimate 80% of all these migrants. They are people with a family in productive age.
Family thinking – children are powerful
The most common pattern (tree) is found in a standard family thinking
PUSH FACTORS – no trigger, slowly surely
They usually take their final decision slowly, there was no trigger which push them for the quick action. They just felt increasing uncomfort from lack of space in the flat and some of them feel not enough green and space in the city. Nature or even garden was wanted and rush in the city was also mentioned.
PULL FACTORS
What is a real motivation for choosing the place?
There are no motivation created by parents. Everything is considered regarding to kids – ALMOST
They have only one the most important goal: how to arrange raising kids, so all the decisions are dependent on their imagination what is the best solution for this purpose.
Amenities of the place is only a “bonus” in the last part of the “diagram”
They don’t think about their personal self-development consciously. There can be found signs about this motivation but it is still very subtle.
Subtypes of Family thinking
ALIGNED mode
These people are usually high educated, financially well supported, focused on healthy food, healthy environment, often bring their children to private schools to the city everyday.
They decided to build a new house and they are very focused on gaining information from the “right” sources which are shared by their own social group.
RELAXED mode
These people sometimes decide to buy an old house and adjust it to their needs or they build a new one but they do a part of the work on their own.
They usually decide to send their children to the village school and they use a bus for commuting. They are very well financial situated as well. They have a car but they don’t use it daily.
How might look their decision patterns?
The first one is the place which doesn’t have all the troubles as the city:
polluted,noisy, alienated, overcrowded.
1. STEP – reaction to the roots
This is everthing what is wanted – what is driving
is to find a place which is spacy – the importance of the house
it should be a house or just a flat?
The important role of the landscape outside, if it is open or if it is closed
The important role of ownership in the meaning having an opportunity to adjust the place.
find something closer to nature
2. STEP – limits
This is almost limitation what is impossible or not practical
1.distance of the city, infrastructure
The other question is the distance from the original city.
And this is changing a lot.
The communication technologies allow many people to work from their homes and they are less dependant on everyday commuting
n the other hand, they have children and they have to attend a school lessons but the truth is that they sometimes go to the local school and sometimes back to the city. It depends on the people who they are.
2. infrastructure
3. STEP – emotional things, feeling of the place, belonging to a group
FIRST RESULTS – FIRST MODELS
This is my basic model:
roots and this three levels of branches
This introduced pattern is expected the majority of counterurbanisation movements and we can label them as a “mainstream” for people with children and they are following the direction that living in the countryside is good for children.
These basic levels appear in the behaviour of standard families who are different just in the decision in the single steps. It means that some families see the distance until 50 km still usable and the other see the distance 30 too far. Or maybe some of them count on being dependent on a car and their children go to schools
If I tried to take a look at the motivation of these people there are allmost nothing about them in person but they take in count just the family interest and nothing about their own self development.They don’t think about their own needs and desires. Everything is driven by raising the kids.
Belonging to a group is not very often appeared in this group because this need is fulfilled by bein a family.
There is usually no “trigger” for the decision, but it just slowly ripens and when they find something what is in their rank of choices, they take it.
The first pattern of thinking is readable in case families with children or families with the prospect of having children in the future. They always thinking primarily about the place regarding to the children. So, this tree is about them and their single choices are dependant more on their perception what is better for their ability to take care about the family and raising children than about their own self development or self-realisation. They don’t think as much about belonging to a group of people because their tribe is a family. So, they don’t really seek for a specific social group.
Pre-Family thinking
The second type of pattern (decision tree) is the pre-family thinking
It is not that often because young people who don’t have a family, don’t move outside that often. They usually stay in the city until the child is on the way or born. So, this is the case with the “trigger”. There must be an occurrence which pushes them to move. And they always take in account the option having family in the future but their prospect is counting on the future family.
but they take it in account have very similar. They have no experience how it is like to have a family, so they don’t see how much it impacts their life. They think mostly about their career in the process of decision making. They think about achieving their goals in their professional life. Their tree is almost the same pattern as the previous group but they prefer different choices in the steps.
This type of people don’t usually think about moving to the countryside before the unusual situation appears. It can be money from relatives they want to support them with buying the house, or their contract is finishing and they decide to to the countryside because they see that there is more space an less money should be paid for it.
TRIGGER
They are usually very focused on their work. All their choices are based on how to arrange their working environment in the best way.
Children are taken in account
They think about children but it is not the supreme topic for them. Their choice is almost not touched by this prospect.
Feeling of the place
They are also interested about the feeling of the place. They watch animals (birds, squirrels) and “mood of landscape”. They often do experiments and they stay overnight in a tent at the place before they buy it.
Single or couple thinking
The third type of pattern (decision tree) is the single thinking.
There is a group which includes singles and couples without an option having kids. They show very similar patterns in making decisions. They can be a couple of people they are too old for having children or homosexual men.
These people are thinking about themselves more than the others. They are really focused on their self-development consciously. There is still difficult to speak about the pattern because there aren’t many. These people do not move to countryside often and if they do, they have a special individual story. They don’t need to look around to anyone so there are their needs first.
They are usually think about the self-actualization, fulfilling their dreams or meaning of life.
They aren’t interested in local infrastructure, or public transportation. They have usually an idea why they need the specific place which they took. It is always about creativity and the adjustment or creating the place as home.
The possibility about adjustment the place
One motivation is common for all of my informators and it is the opportunity to create their own place. It is a background motivation for everyone. But the way how they manifest their creativity in this way is different.
They can manifest their creativity in the conscious way where they do all the changes slowly and softly without big interfere.
Or
The other approach is to manifest the powerful ownership. It is the way when they destruct everything old and create the new world from the foundation. It is also the type of creativity but it looks like suppressed need which bursts with this destruction. It looks like they need to decline their previous life and it feels like a symbolic new beginning.
There is also the feeling “being in charge” of the place which creates the feeling about ownership as well. They want to demonstrate the power of the place. A part of the whole game is also the same need to product their own space for their own group as Henri Lefébvre suggested in his famous book Production of Space (Lefébvre 1971). It was mentioned in conseqences with the social groups which claim their right to the public space and these social groups want to rule the space create their structures and overtake the control of the organisation of the space. This situation seems to be a sign that it is not only true for social group but also for single people or a family who have this need to take the space and govern it.
The approach to the space has also a strong impact on the environment or the public life in the area. The people who tend to preserve their close environment (an old house and old garden) they tend to own more space just because they want to prevent next changes in their neighborhood. (I would buy this land if I had money, because I don’t want anyone build there something ugly.. a supermarket )
The pyramid
If we look at this pyramind, we can say that the privileged migration is not driven by the first level of the pyramid by the money or the basic needs. WE can expect it when we say the word “priviledged” but the truth is that some of informators talk about safety. They really feel insecure in th city. But I need to think about this coincidence more. It doesn not look like a real thing.
The young people they are leaving they lives are full of self achievment or self esteem and the migration is always driven by their career, they think about the good accessibility for their jobs. And they take in account potentially children but they just think about them virtually, they can’t imagine the real situation. If they move somewhere, they are in a mood of thinking in the 4th floor of Maslow’s pyramid
The majority of all informators are families with children as I said before. Their motivation is driven in the first and second level of the pyramid. But they are motivated not with their own needs but with expected needs of the family. It is like a step down in the pyramid. They aren’t motivated with belonging or love because they are already in the relationship and it creates kind of isolation against the rest of the world. They feel belonging with their partner and children.
And the very specific group of people are single people or couples who don’t have anyone to care of. They think about their own goals and their self-development or self-actualisation. They have their own individual trees which is difficult to put into the pattern. They have trigger which reveals them what they want to do and it is connected with the place where they are heading. Or they need to leave the city and earn the room for their activities which has being planned for a long time before.