Residents speak: variables influencing home-related DIY decisions in the former USSR; the case of Vilnius, Lithuania

摘要

In this paper, the results of recent quantitative-based housing research on Vilnius are synthesized with yet more recent field work findings from the same city. In the former, the authors explored the statistical influence of a range of variables on the likelihood of resident-initiated “do-it-yourself (DIY)” work in or around the dwelling in 2001–2002. In the present research, these statistical findings are further explored through resident focus groups meetings and key-person interviews conducted in 2007. The combined results of these two studies shed light on the contextually-situated influence of specific physical/environmental, socio-economic/political, and individual perceptual variables on residents’ DIY behaviors in this former Soviet, newly European capital city.