The outcome of the first Italian National Conference on Quality of Life, this volume is full of cogent analysis of topics and issues related to well being and quality of life, including focused papers on specific population groupings and discrete themes. Held in Florence in September 2010, the conference saw the creation of the Italian Association of Quality of Life Studies, devised as a forum for this varied field of research with a rapidly expanding profile in the context of the continuing financial crisis. The papers address a number of recognized quality-of-life concerns, including public health, wealth distribution, employment, political participation and the perception of crime. Contributors deploy innovative methods of analyzing official statistics that result in more complex and multidimensional indicators. Some papers provide data on other European nations that allow for comparative assessment, while others set out fresh approaches to evaluating quality of life itself. Highly relevant not just to academics, but to policy makers and practitioners in a range of sectors, this publication explores important aspects of a crucial contemporary subject."

This Festschrift is published in honor of Alex C. Michalos, a great scholar and inspiration to many upcoming and famous academics and practitioners. The Festschrift celebrates his lifelong, outstanding scientific and cultural contribution to Quality of Life Research. It contains contributions written by the most prestigious and renowned scholars in the field of social indicators research and quality of life studies. Taken together, the contributions from scholars around the world reflect Michalos' stance that even though there may be differences in individual scientific positions, the language in the field of quality of life has no limits and boundaries.

This volume analyses the quantification of the effect of factors measuring subjective well-being, and in particular on the metrics applied. With happiness studies flourishing over the last decades, both in number of publications as well as in their exposure, researchers working in this field are aware of potential weaknesses and pitfalls of these metrics. Contributors to this volume reflect on different factors influencing quantification, such as scale size, wording, language, biases, and cultural comparability in order to raise awareness on the tools and on their conditions of use.

Indicators are more and more applied to describe and analyze complex systems. Typical examples: Innovation potential of nations, child-well being, Environmental health, poverty, chemical pollution, corruption of nations. The task is: How can a system of indicators be defined in order to fulfill the above expectations. One possibility is the application of the mathematical theory of partial order, especially when the indicator system shall be used for ranking purposes.

This book presents a new research agenda for improvements in Quality of Life research. It includes topics such as: -Studying QoL in particular subpopulations and selected subgroups -Disentangling the difficult task of identifying determinants of QoL -Perfectionating the measurement of conceptual dimensions -Defining new indicators able to measure and monitor particular social conditions and shows that these are not separated fields of studies but intersect each other and produce different outcomes which can be with difficulty classifiable, consistent with the idea of the complexity of our reality. The volume presents micro perspectives by taking into account the macro situation through both qualitative and quantitative approaches.

This book presents a new research agenda for improvements in Quality of Life research. It includes topics such as: -Studying QoL in particular subpopulations and selected subgroups -Disentangling the difficult task of identifying determinants of QoL -Perfectionating the measurement of conceptual dimensions -Defining new indicators able to measure and monitor particular social conditions and shows that these are not separated fields of studies but intersect each other and produce different outcomes which can be with difficulty classifiable, consistent with the idea of the complexity of our reality. The volume presents micro perspectives by taking into account the macro situation through both qualitative and quantitative approaches.

The outcome of the first Italian National Conference on Quality of Life, this volume is full of cogent analysis of topics and issues related to well being and quality of life, including focused papers on specific population groupings and discrete themes. Held in Florence in September 2010, the conference saw the creation of the Italian Association of Quality of Life Studies, devised as a forum for this varied field of research with a rapidly expanding profile in the context of the continuing financial crisis. The papers address a number of recognized quality-of-life concerns, including public health, wealth distribution, employment, political participation and the perception of crime. Contributors deploy innovative methods of analyzing official statistics that result in more complex and multidimensional indicators. Some papers provide data on other European nations that allow for comparative assessment, while others set out fresh approaches to evaluating quality of life itself. Highly relevant not just to academics, but to policy makers and practitioners in a range of sectors, this publication explores important aspects of a crucial contemporary subject.

Indicators are more and more applied to describe and analyze complex systems. Typical examples: Innovation potential of nations, child-well being, Environmental health, poverty, chemical pollution, corruption of nations. The task is: How can a system of indicators be defined in order to fulfill the above expectations. One possibility is the application of the mathematical theory of partial order, especially when the indicator system shall be used for ranking purposes.

This Festschrift is published in honor of Alex C. Michalos, a great scholar and inspiration to many upcoming and famous academics and practitioners. The Festschrift celebrates his lifelong, outstanding scientific and cultural contribution to Quality of Life Research. It contains contributions written by the most prestigious and renowned scholars in the field of social indicators research and quality of life studies. Taken together, the contributions from scholars around the world reflect Michalos' stance that even though there may be differences in individual scientific positions, the language in the field of quality of life has no limits and boundaries.