Abstract
While Quality of Life (QOL) has long been an explicit or implicit policy goal, adequate definition and measurement have been elusive. Diverse and indicators across a range of disci- plines and scales, and recent work on subjective well-being (SWB) surveys and the psychology of happiness have spurred renewed interest. Drawing from multiple disciplines, we present an integrative definition of QOL that combines measures of human needs with subjective well-being or happiness. QOL is proposed as a multi- scale, multi-dimensional concept that contains interacting objective and subjective elements. We relate QOL to the opportunities that are provided to meet human needs in the forms of built, human, social and natural capital (in addition to time) and the policy options that are available to enhance these opportunities. Issues related to defining, measuring, and scaling these concepts are discussed, and a research agenda is elaborated. Policy implications include strategies for investing in opportunities to maximize QOL enhancement at the individual, community, and national scales.
Highlights
Enhancing Quality of Life (QOL) has long been a major explicit or implicit life-style and policy goal for individuals, communities, nations, and the world (Schuessler and Fisher, 1985)
Quality of life is a critical element in the ongoing discourse on economic prosperity and sustainability, but it has often been subsumed under the heading of “economic growth” under the assumption that more income and consumption equates
Objective indicators may be used singly or in combination to form summary indexes, such as the UN’s Human Development Index (Sen, 1999; United Nations Development Programm, 1998). While these measurements may provide a snapshot of how well some physical and social needs are met, they are narrow, opportunity-biased, and cannot incorporate many issues that contribute to QOL such as identity, participation, and psychological security
Summary
Enhancing Quality of Life (QOL) has long been a major explicit or implicit life-style and policy goal for individuals, communities, nations, and the world (Schuessler and Fisher, 1985). Objective indicators may be used singly or in combination to form summary indexes, such as the UN’s Human Development Index (Sen, 1999; United Nations Development Programm, 1998) While these measurements may provide a snapshot of how well some physical and social needs are met, they are narrow, opportunity-biased, and cannot incorporate many issues that contribute to QOL such as identity, participation, and psychological security. Recognition of the varying natures of these four types of capital will help to most efficiently provide opportunities to meet human needs From this perspective, QOL is a multidimensional construct emerging from the evaluation of multiple needs on the individual, community, national, and global levels. To identify patterns at the individual level or very small temporal scales, we must focus our attention on larger spatial regions or longer temporal scales so as to find statistical ensembles for which observations become more regular
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