Since initiating the journal Social Indicators Research in 1974, Alex C. Michalos has been a pioneer in social indicators and quality-of-life research. This collection of nineteen articles provides an overview of nearly 30 years of work, including papers drawn from diverse sources and papers never published before. Topics range over quality of life investigations connected to the problems of combining social, economic and environmental indicators, measuring the status of women in Canada, housing and migration, health and human well-being, older peoples' well-being, leisure activities and health, impact of public services, police services, criminal victimization, feminism and ethnic relations on the quality of life. The final paper, on multiple discrepancies theory (MDT), is the author's unique contribution to an empirically testable new foundation for theories of utility, satisfaction and happiness.

Inhalt

1. Reflections on twenty-five years of quality-of-life research.- 2. Combining social, economic and environmental indicators to measure sustainable human well-being.- 3. Evaluation of equality policies for the status of women in Canada.- 4. Militarism and the quality of life.- 5. Migration and the quality of life.- 6. Job satisfaction, marital satisfaction and the quality of life.- 7. Discrepancies between perceived income needs and actual incomes.- 8. Optimism in 30 countries over a decade.- 9. Health and the quality of life.- 10. Health and other aspects of the quality of life of older people.- 11. Healthy days, health satisfaction and satisfaction with the overall quality of life.- 12. Leisure activities, health and the quality of life.- 13. Social indicators research and health-related quality of life research.- 14. Public services and the quality of life.- 15. Criminal victimization and the quality of life.- 16. Policing services and the quality of life.- 17. Feminism and the quality of life.- 18. Ethnicity, modern prejudice and the quality of life.- 19. The impact of trust on business, international security and the quality of life.- 20. Multiple discrepancies theory (MDT).