Challenges for Quality of Life

Abstract

Table of contents Acknowledgments.- Challenges for Quality of Life.- PART I: GOAL DISCUSSIONS ON QUALITY OF LIFE.- Social Quality and Quality of Life.- Bringing together the Concepts of Quality of Life and Sustainability.- Subjective Measures of Well-being in Developing Countries.- Towards Enhancing the Quality of Life in Africa.- Challenges, Problems, and Prospects.- PART II: MONITORING QUALITY OF LIFE.- World Database of Happiness. Continuous Register of Research on Subjective Appreciation of Life.- Comparative Survey Questions on Quality of Life. The "Dynamic Information Centre".- An Evidence-Based Approach to the Construction of Summary Quality-of-Life Indices.- The Social State of the Netherlands. A Model Based Approach to Describing Living Conditions and Quality of Life.- Biographical Analysis of Quality of Life Processes in Migration.- PART III: ECONOMIC CHALLENGES FOR QUALITY OF LIFE.- Monetary Stability and Quality of Life.- Segmented Quality of Working Life. Regular vs. Non-Regular Workers in Korea.- Does Happiness Pay? An Exploration Based on Panel Data from Russia.- PART IV: CULTURAL CHALLENGES FOR QUALITY OF LIFE.- Happiness as an Expression of Freedom and Self-Determination. A Comparative Multilevel Analysis.- Satisfaction with Life Domains and Salient Values for the Future. Analyses about Children and their Parents.- Parental Divorce and the Well-being of Adolescent Children. Changes between 1984-1999 in the Netherlands.- Belief in Values and their Perceived Realization as Determinants of Quality of Life. The Case of Kibbutz Members.- PART V: OPTIONS AND RESTRICTIONS FOR QUALITY OF LIFE.- Quality of Life in a Divided Society.- Satisfaction with Health Care Systems. A Comparison of EU Countries.- The Quality of Death as a Component of Quality of Life.- Life Satisfaction: Can We Produce It?.- About the Authors and Editors About this book: The theme of the Fifth International Conference, organized by the International Society for Quality of Life Studies, was "challenges for the quality of life in the contemporary world". There are new threats and new prospects with regard to the quality of life in each generation, and securing and improving the quality of life constitute a never-ending task. Research related to these problems is of interest to specialists in science and politics as well as to a broader public consisting of those who are concerned with questions of the quality of life, happiness, life satisfaction, life domains, social quality, well-being, societal goals, cultural and economic challenges. The first set of contributions to this volume offers a discussion about the goal of the quality of life. This discussion is currently held in modernized as well as in developing countries. The second section focuses on scientific institutions and procedures, which are necessary for monitoring the quality of life in a valid and reliable manner. The third part deals with challenges for the quality of life in the economy and working life. The fourth section presents a series of contributions on cultural challenges for the quality of life; family, divorce, the well-being of children and the significance of values are considered. The fifth section is devoted to fundamental options and restrictions for the quality of life and answers the question of what we can do to improve our satisfaction with life