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. It is the
interplay of these key trends of the era that call for a fresh
approach to quality of life studies to inform policy makers and
development practitioners. This book addresses the key challenges
life research that relate to the characteristics of the new
millennium such as increased risks, rapid worldwide democratisation
of societies, loss of bio- and cultural diversity, rapid erosion of
natural resources and climate change, and global connectivity that
accelerates the transmission of disease as well as knowledge.
Quality of life (QOL) research has made great strides since the
social indicator movement started as a scientific enterprise in the
1960s. Researchers from many different scientific disciplines are
now engaged in describing and evaluating the human condition in
many different parts of the world. Although QOL researchers are
better equipped both theoretically and practically than in the
past, the new era poses new challenges for them. One such challenge
relates to the very definition of the subject under study. The
notion of the good life that has intrigued classical Greek is fluid
and popular conceptions of the good life have shifted over time.
The speed with which societies worldwide are changing in the new
millennium is breathtaking. It is possible that the vision of the
good life has shifted dramatically over the forty years since the
social indicator movement began.
Democracy is currently the political system of choice in the new
millennium or is at least considered the best possible system of
governance invented to date. The emergent democracies in the Second
and Third World have joined the ranks of the older democracies of
the First World. One of the important roles of QOL researchers is
to engage citizens in assessing their life circumstances relative
to their own conception of the good life.
Quality of life studies play an important role in guiding social
policy. In democracies citizens are able to hold their governments
accountable for pursuing the policies and making the interventions
that will make the greatest improvements for the greatest number.
There are moral and political issues related to the proper role of
governments in providing the good life and public goods. This
volume addresses the issue of how governments should intervene to
shape the good life for their citizens. This is a pertinent
question for quality-of-life scholars in all corners of the earth
in the new millennium.
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