Abstract
This overview is a comprehensive reconstruction of the social indicators movement from the middle of the 1960s up to the actual quality of life and wellbeing-research 50 years later. The time span regarded here corresponds roughly with the professional life of the two authors and the article is dedicated to Alex Michalos, to whom our research network thanks a lot.
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Notes
- 1.
Glatzer was after finishing his study co-opted into the research project SPES (content see later) guided by Hans-Jürgen Krupp and Wolfgang Zapf.
- 2.
- 3.
Since 1984 on the side of SIR were introduced the Newsletter SINET edited since this time by Kenneth C. Land. Additional journals in the quality of life- and wellbeing-context were Journal of Happiness Studies”(since 2000) and the Journal of “Applied Research in Quality of Life”(since 2006). There is also the journal “Quality of Life Research” which is not related to ISQOLS moreover to ISOQOL, which is an alternative organization dedicated to medicine and life sciences. This list of successful publications – journals and book series - is an indicator for the worldwide increasing interest in this approach.
- 4.
As it is typical for the network-building of Michalos and his colleagues they pulled Wolfgang Glatzer among others into all the editorial teams of the increasing publications on social indicators and quality of life.
- 5.
An interesting proof for the internationally and interdisciplinary broad interest in quality of life and wellbeing topics is that two big organizations emerged: ISQOLS (International Society of Quality of Life Studies since 1996), dedicated to quality life and wellbeing, and ISOQOL (International Society for Quality of Life Research since 1994), focused on health-related quality of life, which met and worked parallel and developed their own journals (see Internet Homepages).
- 6.
This content depends on the article “German Social Reporting” from Wolfgang Glatzer and Gert G. Wagner in the Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-being” (In: Michalos 2014).
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
There was an English edition “German Social Report” (Zapf 1987), which was published as a special volume of “Social Indicators Research”.
- 10.
One example is the conference 1994 in Stockholm (Stockholm Seminar on Social Statistics, June 6–7). The contributions to “Social Statistics” in the sense of social reporting were presented from various countries from Italy to Finland. That this conference took place in Sweden was due to the fact, that Sweden and the Nordic countries were at this time leading with autonomous ideas of social reporting (level of living surveys). All in all there were in Europe numerous country-specific activities of social reporting. Main points of discussion were always the technical problems, the samples and their validity and the specialities of the countries which should be included.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
In addition to the Eurpean quality of life survey there were carried through the European Company Survey (ECS) and the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) which has become a well-established source of information about working conditions and the quality of work and employment.
- 14.
Another balance was given in “an overview of the international development in macro social indicators” 35 years ago (Glatzer 1981).
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Glatzer, W., Zapf, W. (2016). The Spread of Social Indicators- and Quality of Life-Research in Germany and Europe: An Overview in Honour of Alex Michalos. In: Maggino, F. (eds) A Life Devoted to Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 60. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20568-7_12
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