This handbook provides students of quality-of-life (QOL) research with an understanding of how QOL research can be conducted from an ethical marketing perspective - a perspective based on positive social change. The handbook covers theoretical, philosophical, and measurement issues in QOL research. The handbook also approaches selected QOL studies in relation to various populations in various life domains. The marketing approach is highly pragmatic because it allows social and behavioral scientists from any discipline to apply marketing concepts to plan social change and assess the impact of intervention strategies on the QOL of targeted populations.

The aim of the Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research is to create an overview of the field of Quality of Life (QOL) studies in the early years of the 21st century that can be updated and improved upon as the field evolves and the century unfolds. Social indicators are statistical time series “...used to monitor the social system, helping to identify changes and to guide intervention to alter the course of social change”. Examples include unemployment rates, crime rates, estimates of life expectancy, health status indices, school enrollment rates, average achievement scores, election voting rates, and measures of subjective well-being such as satisfaction with life-as-a-whole and with specific domains or aspects of life. This book provides a review of the historical development of the field including the history of QOL in medicine and mental health as well as the research related to quality-of-work-life (QWL) programs. It discusses several of QOL main concepts: happiness, positive psychology, and subjective wellbeing. Relations between spirituality and religiousness and QOL are examined as are the effects of educational attainment on QOL and marketing, and the associations with economic growth. The book goes on to investigate methodological approaches and issues that should be considered in measuring and analysing quality of life from a quantitative perspective. The final chapters are dedicated to research on elements of QOL in a broad range of countries and populations.

This handbook provides a comprehensive historical account of the field of Quality of Life. It brings together theoretical insights and empirical findings and presents the main items of global quality of life and wellbeing research. Worldwide in its scope of topics, the handbook examines discussions of demographic and health development, the spread of democracy, global economic accounting, multi-item measurement of perceived satisfaction and expert-assessed quality of life and the well-being of children, women and poor people. It looks at well-being in specific regions, including North and Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern and Western Europe. In addition to contributions by leading and younger authors, the handbook includes contributions from International Organizations about their own work with respect to social reporting.

This handbook provides the latest research related to quality of life and sustainability, taking into account social, economic, environmental, and political/governance aspects as well as specific socio-spatial contexts. The volume includes contributions from established and upcoming scholars from various disciplines and geographical contexts (Global South and North). The varying cultural and socio-spatial contexts of the authors in the selected cases contribute to first-hand knowledge on the realities of sustainability issues affecting the quality of life. The authors apply a wide diversity of methods and tools, which facilitates a unique understanding of the interlinkages between quality of life and sustainability. The chapters are grouped in three main sections: concepts and foundations; tools, techniques, and applications; and innovations. The authors provide their own view and theoretical approximation of the dimensions of sustainability, in particular on how these dimensions play out in relation to quality of life. The combination of sustainability and quality of life concepts and perspectives is particularly important in unravelling the multi-faceted nature of human, urban, rural/spatial development.

This handbook reflects on quality-of-life in societies on the continent of Africa. It provides a widely interdisciplinary text with insights on quality-of-life from a variety of scientific perspectives. The handbook is structured into sections covering themes of social context, culture and community; the environment and technology; health; education; and family. It is aimed at scholars who are working towards sustainable development at the intersections of multiple scientific fields and it provides measures of both objective and subjective quality-of-life. The scholarly contributions in the text are based on original research and it spans fields of research such as cultures of positivity, wellbeing, literacy and multilinguism, digital and mobile technologies, economic growth, food and nutrition, health promotion, community development, teacher education and family life. Some chapters take a broad approach and report on research findings involving thousands, and in one case millions, of participants. Other chapters zoom in and illustrate the importance of specificity in quality-of-life studies. Collectively, the handbook illuminates the particularity of quality-of-life in Africa, the unique contextual challenges and the resourcefulness with which challenges are being mediated. This handbook provides empirically grounded conceptualizations about life in Africa that also encapsulate the dynamic, ingenious ways in which we, as Africans, enhance our quality-of-life.

This handbook presents an overview of studies on the relationship of active ageing and quality of life. It addresses the new challenges of ageing from the paradigm of positive ageing (active, healthy and successful) for a better quality of life. It provides theoretical perspectives and empirical studies, including scientific knowledge as well as practical experiences about the good ageing and the quality of later life around the world, in order to respond to the challenges of an aged population. The handbook is structured in 4 sections covering theoretical and conceptual perspectives, social policy issues and research agenda, methods, measurement instrument-scales and evaluations, and lastly application studies including domains and geographical contexts. Chapter 5 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com./div