Quality of life as the concept to resolve/transcend the development paradox

Abstract

The central topic of this study is quality of life, which has increasingly gained significance as a topic of social and economic policies in recent years. On the intellectual horizon of public policy, the emphasis has been shifting from the single and ruling aspect of economic growth towards quality of life as a key priority - though the manifestation of this theory in practical measures is badly wanting and rare even in the developed countries. Even in the environments where the shifting of the focus of public policy towards the quality of life is being urged, they are at a loss when trying to define the actual meaning of this term (i.e. quality of life) and even more so about the means of measuring it. This study argues that applying the context of quality of life offers a chance to resolve the development paradox. Over emphasizing the importance of economic growth puts an emphasis on the feeling of comfort, which lowers the chance for happiness: psychological research has proven that the source of happiness is returning from a different from-optimal level of activity to the accustomed level. As for the theoretical part, the starting point for the interpretation of the notion of quality of life is the redefinition of the notion of happiness. This redefinition is necessitated by the need to transcend the above-mentioned paradox of modernity. In essence, this paradox is nothing else than the fact that, in the consumer society, ideal consumers are not independent and mature personalities, but mechanical objects that are deprived of their real human relations, are lonely in and of their fears and are exposed to the manipulation of the mass media.