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Brussels, or rather not?
Motivations on the living conditions of Brussels as a residential city
Residential context of Brussels
The Brussels population is growing continuously whereas the number of middle class families is diminishes year after year. As a result, the Brussels population impoverishes set-off against the growing economic importance of the Brussels region as part of Belgium. This situation has important financial repercussions for the Brussels region.
Motivational aspects of movers and stayers
To picture the migration of people to the suburbs of the Brussels region we want to investigate on their socio-economic profiles. To draw up these profiles we consider their life cycle, their education and professional interest, their life style, their preferences and housing expectations and their views on the changing social, political and economic circumstances of the Brussels region.
Goal 1: Delphi approach
Most often, studies solely rely on the participation of residents to complete a survey questionnaire on their motives.
“Supported by the MOTUS-software this research relies on the Delphi approach in which a multi-actor, multi-method research setup is considered.”
The multi-actor is covered by incorporating the input from policy makers, persons responsible in the domain of housing on communal and regional level, in the domain of transport, in the domain of education and employment, scientific experts, employers, tenants, house owners and many other.
These actors undergo in a first stage an iterative process of open questioning in which they further precise their vision(s) on the subject based on input from previous rounds. In a next stage these information is used to define a questionnaire to present to 1.000 stayers and movers. In a third phase the outcomes of the data collection is (re)discussed with the above-mentioned experts, and policy recommendations are made.
Goal 2: FUR – Functional Urban Region
Once the Delphi is complete and the study results are discussed by the experts a second research goal is put forward, namely visualising the geographical area in which people spend their daily time travelling, working, buying goods, participate to culture, let their kids take part to social live, … .
“With MOTUS we can visualize the professional and social interactions movers still have with the Brussels region.”
The eminent goal is to get a grip on how these interactions should be valued in costs and benefits both on the individual/household level and on the level of the Brussels region. Our research goal is (a) map the individual FUR’s, and (b) interfere on the motivational and satisfactional level on the interaction with the Brussels region by asking extra questions through the MOTUS-application.
Case conclusion
A lot of studies have tried to get grip on why middle class families move out of the Brussels region. This upward trend continues, while at the same time Brussels remains a large attraction pool, economically and socially.
With the Delphi method, we bring all stakeholders into play to understand the motivations of stayers and movers.
Continuing, we infer on the individual action patterns in and outside Brussels to picture the functional aspects of the Brussels Region (or FUR – Functional Urban Region).
