The Quality Of Life

Commentator: Ruth Anna Putnam

Quality of life is one of the most important issues facing the world today and is central to the development of social policy. This innovative book discusses this crucial topic, assessing the criteria for judging attempts to raise quality of life, including the satisfaction of basic and social needs, autonomy to enjoy life and social connectivity. It considers key topics such as: individual well-being and health-related quality of life human needs - living fulfilling and flourishing lives poverty and social exclusion social solidarity, altruism and trust within communities. Quality of Life is the first systematic presentation of this subject from both individual and collective perspectives. It provides a powerful overview of a concept which is becoming increasingly prominent in the social sciences and is essential reading for students of social policy, sociology and health studies.

This unique and insightful work examines the importance of ‘quality of life’ for the city which has become a key component of urban competitiveness over the past 30 years. It argues that having a high or low ‘quality of life’ will have important consequences for the vitality and status of any city. The book’s six substantive chapters explore this issue by each examining a distinct element that comprises ‘quality of life’, including the approach of economists to quality of life, links to urban competitiveness, the economy, urban amenities and attributes.

After measuring the Quality of Life and identifying the deficiences in your community, what steps should you take to improve the Quality of Life? This volume reviews methods for improving the Quality of Life that are based upon improving each of the ten domains of the Quality of Life. Steps to improve health, means of reducing environmental toxins, orientation to bring about better self-concept and mental health, and so forth. In each such area, steps are set forth for eliminating undesirable and debilitating features of the domain. Social change comes about by the application of devised steps. The process has been called "telesis". It is the application of intelligent, well-tested interventions to bring about improvement. In some cases it may effect change quickly and others may require a continuing process of adjustment and change. As a handbook for community workers, the volume provides a framework for intervention that could lead to a better tomorrow.

The aim of this encyclopedia is to provide a comprehensive reference work on scientific and other scholarly research on the quality of life, including health-related quality of life research or also called patient-reported outcomes research. Since the 1960s two overlapping but fairly distinct research communities and traditions have developed concerning ideas about the quality of life, individually and collectively, one with a fairly narrow focus on health-related issues and one with a quite broad focus. In many ways, the central issues of these fields have roots extending to the observations and speculations of ancient philosophers, creating a continuous exploration by diverse explorers in diverse historic and cultural circumstances over several centuries of the qualities of human existence. What we have not had so far is a single, multidimensional reference work connecting the most salient and important contributions to the relevant fields. Entries are organized alphabetically and cover basic concepts, relatively well established facts, lawlike and causal relations, theories, methods, standardized tests, biographic entries on significant figures, organizational profiles, indicators and indexes of qualities of individuals and of communities of diverse sizes, including rural areas, towns, cities, counties, provinces, states, regions, countries and groups of countries.

The aim of the Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research is to create an overview of the field of Quality of Life (QOL) studies in the early years of the 21st century that can be updated and improved upon as the field evolves and the century unfolds. Social indicators are statistical time series “...used to monitor the social system, helping to identify changes and to guide intervention to alter the course of social change”. Examples include unemployment rates, crime rates, estimates of life expectancy, health status indices, school enrollment rates, average achievement scores, election voting rates, and measures of subjective well-being such as satisfaction with life-as-a-whole and with specific domains or aspects of life. This book provides a review of the historical development of the field including the history of QOL in medicine and mental health as well as the research related to quality-of-work-life (QWL) programs. It discusses several of QOL main concepts: happiness, positive psychology, and subjective wellbeing. Relations between spirituality and religiousness and QOL are examined as are the effects of educational attainment on QOL and marketing, and the associations with economic growth. The book goes on to investigate methodological approaches and issues that should be considered in measuring and analysing quality of life from a quantitative perspective. The final chapters are dedicated to research on elements of QOL in a broad range of countries and populations.

This book grew out of research funded by the Montana Department of Labor and Industry. This study will argue that the distinction between "economic values" and "social values" such as the "quality of life" is a misleading and dangerous distinction. There is nothing especially ethereal or spiritual or "noneconomic" about the quality of life (QOL). Similarly there is nothing especially "material", practical" or "economic" about job opportunities or money prices

This volume brings together a number of scholarly studies on the definition, assessment and measurement of human quality of life. The book contains fundamental analyses of basic concepts such as welfare, wellbeing, happiness and quality of life itself, but contains also discussions on the application of such concepts for measuring purposes mainly in a health care context. Although the approach to these problems in the book is predominantly philosophical, there are also some studies which take a different, mainly sociological and medical, point of view. Most of the authors have a Scandinavian origin and their essays mirror the current debate on quality of life in northern Europe. The book however also contains contributions by distinguished scholars from the U.K., France, Italy and the Netherlands.