What makes Vienna a great place to live?

The study authored by Angela Samuel, Katharina Dinhof, and professor Jurgen Willems combines interviews and a quota-based survey of 1,787 residents in Austria with a media analysis of 39 urban conflicts and five conjoint experiments involving 1,354 respondents. The survey results show that museums, universities, local businesses, and hospitals received the highest ratings for contributing to Vienna’s livability. The role of political actors including governments, parliaments, and political parties was rated considerably lower. The findings suggest that respondents view livability as the result of contributions from a wide range of societal actors, particularly institutions that shape everyday urban life through culture, education, healthcare, and social interaction. “Our research shows that people strongly associate livability with cultural access, opportunities for learning, and spaces of creativity. They view livability primarily through the lens of everyday urban experiences rather than through formal political structures,” says Angela Samuel, lead author of the study. According to the paper, this can be explained by the broader trend of declining trust in political institutions that can be observed across Europe.

The study also highlights the importance of participation and recognition in urban governance. In five experiments, the researchers found that people attribute more influence to stakeholders with voting rights, language proficiency, and economic contribution. This suggests that some groups are more readily perceived as legitimate contributors to urban life than others. “Livability also depends on whose contributions are recognized, whose interests matter, and who is able to participate in shaping urban life. Cities aiming to remain livable should also look beyond formal indicators of participation and ensure that decision-making processes reflect the diversity of all population groups who live in the city and make it unique,” says co-author Katharina Dinhof. “Such measures include strengthening the political voice of non-citizens, improving multilingual access to public services, and involving a broader range of residents through citizens’ assemblies, neighborhood councils, and other participatory formats,” Samuel adds.

Detailed study results and further information

Samuel, Angela Luwanhe, Dinhof, Katharina, Willems, Jurgen (2026): Reframing urban livability through stakeholder salience: A citizen-centered model. In: Urban Studies (2026). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980261464858