Perceived and Experienced Urban Risks and Life Difficulties

Abstract

This chapter deals with the potential risks and actual difficulties the middle and lower classes of these three cities experience. The analysis of the sequential stages of the past, present, and future perceptions of urban risks clarifies the nature of risks faced in urban life, what their priorities are, and how their actual needs and experiences form their future perceptions. It will show that one’s past experiences and recent circumstances influence their subjective well-being and future perception, and, thus, there is a path dependency for the prospects of life. It is, however, not a matter of fully eliminating risk and negative shock from one’s life, but rather of the conditions for resilience and vulnerability.