The new millennium is widely considered to be the age of globalisation, democratisation, and human rights. We live in a knowledge society and in a time of risk and uncertainty. World society is rapidly urbanising and ageing and exhausting its natural resources. It is the interplay of such key trends of the era that calls for a fresh approach to measuring quality of life. This collection of papers presents an innovative approach to evaluating living standards and wellbeing under the new circumstances facing individuals and societies in twenty-first century. Contributions cover a wide range of issues that impact positively and negatively on wellbeing in our age. While stability, trust, equal access to resources and the social integration of disadvantaged members of society enhance well-being, poverty, social exclusion, congestion in cities, HIV/AIDS and global warming pose threats to both modern and traditional lifestyles. Methodological refinements of conventional measurement tools are presented that take into consideration the rich diversity of lifestyles and values among different populations and regions of the world. This book will be essential reading for social scientists and ordinary citizens who are concerned about the future of human well-being on our planet.

Autorentext

Valerie Møller Is Professor of Quality of Life Studies in the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. She has researched a wide range of quality of life issues in South Africa for public information and policy purposes, including housing, poverty and unemployment, development and service delivery, criminal victimisation and intergenerational relations. Together with colleagues she developed the first survey instruments in the 1980s to measure perceptions of personal well-being among South Africans the study is regularly updated. More recently she successfully lobbied for the inclusion of a quality of life module in Statistics South Africa's annual household survey which produces the bulk of national social indicators.

Denis Huschka is Managing Director of the German Council for Social and Economic Data, situated in Berlin/Germany. He also conducts scientific studies as a Research Associate of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa and he is Permanent Visiting Fellow of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). He has done empirical research on regional differences in Quality of Life in Germany and Europe, and on Anomia in post-apartheid South Africa. He was involved in establishing or carrying out several survey initiatives (Wohlfahrtssurvey, Germany; General Household Survey 2002, South Africa; Euromodule, Europe). His most recent research interest focuses on the sociological concept of individualisation as applied to given names as social indicators.

Inhalt
Learning from the Past to Inform the Future.- Challenges for Quality-of-Life Studies in the New Millennium.- South Africa: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.- Poverty and the Quality of Life: Lessons from South African Research.- The Importance of a Mixed Cash- and Harvest Herding Based Economy to Living in the Arctic An Analysis on the Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA).- Refining Concepts and Measurement to Assess Cross-Cultural Quality of Life.- The International Scale Interval Study: Improving the Comparability of Responses to Survey Questions About Happiness.- More Than SF-36? Using Narratives to Elaborate Health and Well-Being Data in Recent Lower-Limb Amputees.- The Spiritual Dimension of Quality of Life, with Special Reference to Education and Spirituality.- Addressing the Role of Stability and Change in the New Millennium.- The Impact of Instability on Subjective Well-Being: A Cross-National Study.- Stability and Change in National and Personal Wellbeing in Algeria: A Case Study of a Developing Country in Transition.- 'All That Glitters Is Not Gold': Johannesburg and Migrant Access to Social Services.- Exploring the Role of Good Governance For a Better Quality of Life.- Trust and Life Satisfaction in Eastern and Western Europe.- Quality of Life in Cities: A Question of Mobility and Accessibility.- The Main Determinants for Subjective Well-Being: A Quest for the Holy Grail?.- Health Care A Major Challenge in the New Millennium.- The Vicious Circularity of Mental Health Effects of HIV/AIDS: Symptom and Cause of Poor Responses to the Epidemic.- Universal Coverage but Unequal Access?.- Prospects for Community-Based Rehabilitation in the New Millennium.