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If you had to decide for a new job, what would you do? Here are two options:
one job promising a higher salary but more additional working hours and
a longer distance to the place of work. The second option is a 75% job
naturally meaning a lower salary but more leisure time at your
disposal. Which one would you chose? According to the 2003 micro-census*
two thirds of all Austrian citizens would go for the option with more
leisure time. Yet, is it not still financial aspects which dominate our
actual decisions? This seems logical since money allows easy
comparisons and better or worse is pretty obvious. But why do we take
higher life quality or happiness for granted in relation to a higher
salary? Why do we all too quickly push aside what is really important
to us? What does a really good life mean at all? What about the great
number of aspects beyond material wealth—family, friendships, freedom,
acknowledgement, self-fulfillment? These are some of the questions SERI
deals with under the name of quality of life research.
Quality of Life
After it had become clear that material wealth does not satisfy all human needs the modern concept of quality of life gained importance in the 1960s and 70s in the USA and in Europe. The political debate about quality of life was interrupted by the growth crisis of the 1970s. Now, a number of objectives formulated back then are back on the agenda of sustainable development.
The quality of life concept enables an integrated, comprehensive approach in the observation of material and non-material values as well as objective and subjective components of wealth. According to the side of a question the concept integrates holistic approaches and theories of various areas.
Sustainable Development and Quality of Life
The demand for sustainable development with its normative preconditions like the conservation of resources, concern for social aspects and complex interrelations between nature, economy and society has become a global politically accepted concept and a lot is already being done to realize its goals. Yet, we are still far from a sweeping success story. Sustainability has not reached people’s hearts and souls. The quality of life concept, however, may be the right way to do so by combining sustainable development with a joyful and peaceful search for a fulfilled life in a world worth living. Also, the concept favors "better" instead of "more" and thus goes beyond consumerism. The European Commission’s 2006 EU Sustainability Strategy took the first step in the right direction. The Brundtland definition of sustainable development referring to human needs has been extended by the term of quality of life:
It [sustainable development] aims at the continuous improvement of the quality of life and well-being on Earth for present and future generations. (EU 2006)**
Based on these considerations private and social questions can be answered in a different way:
Does our quality of lives really increase if…
…we can eat strawberries all year long, the production of which is socially and ecologically critical? Or isn’t it rather the thrill of anticipation for the first regional strawberries in spring?
…we consume more and more goods each year which break down or we lose interest in after a short while? Or aren’t we rather satisfied with high-quality long-life products?
…if we travel across the globe every year to discover yet another exotic beach? Or aren’t there enough unequally beautiful areas nearby we only know from television?
Quality of Life Research
In order to deal with the basic questions of quality of life research it is necessary for various scientific disciplines to cooperate and to involve non-scientific experts (interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary) who follow potential realizations and actions and who develop a holistic perspective of our society’s challenges. Quality of life research thus demands to go beyond common research approaches.
SERI’s work is based on "post normal science", an approach generally referred to under the term mode-2. Important mode-2 features are: research questions rise from existing problems and not from the scientists’ curiosity; scientists’ knowledge is extended by stakeholder involvement (the general public, laymen, experts from other areas, decision makers); the existing insecurity about current phenomena and future development is being accepted and included into research processes.
Quality of life research is based on mode-2, yet also reaches beyond: e.g., human needs and emotions are in the center of attention. In order to give them shape and include them into research methods are needed which are hardly ever used in this scientific field or which partly have to be adopted and developed. This means that we also need an approach which goes beyond rationality and can also deal with subjective "data"—besides its objective aspects of frame work conditions, quality of life also comprises a subjective, maybe even irrational, part deriving from individual perception. In this way, a new, integral research approach is being developed at the moment: mode-3. Mode-3 poses new challenges as methods need to be re-developed or adapted and integrated from various other areas. Still, for a comprehensive quality of life research this seems to be the only meaningful way
- to support our present and future increase of our quality of lives, and
- to touch people’s hearts in order to add emotions to the idea of sustainability.
SERI’s Quality of Life Projects
SERI approaches the issue of Quality of Life in various projects:
New Project: Update of the "Ecosocial Market Economy"
For some months now, SERI has accompanied the Ökosoziale Forum Europa (Ecosocial Forum Europe) in the reformulation of the concept of an "Ecosocial Market Economy".
The stakeholder-orientated process startet with a public event under the title of "Social and Ecological Market Economy - Mission Impossible?" on June 6, 2008, in the theatre hall of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Main contributor was the publicist and former CDU general secretary Heiner Heißler.
The work will be continued with further events in fall and is going to be published in 2009, the 20th anniversary year of the original "Ecosocial Market Economy" version.
Summer Academy at the "Happy Lake"
Under the title "Happy Weeks" ("Glückswochen") the yearly summer academy of the SERI cooperational partner "Lacus Felix - healthy and conscious life at the Traun Lake" ("Lacus Felix" means "Happy Lake" and was the name given to the Traun Lake by the ancient Romans) is about to start these days. In the course of the academy Fritz Hintberger will hold a lecture about "Happy living in a sustainable future" on August 12.
Find the complete program on www.lacus-felix.at (pdf download)
GEO-4 Chapter 7
The Global Environment Outlook (GEO) is the flagship product of the United Nations Environment Programme (www.unep.org). SERI was working on Chapter 7 of GEO 4 which was published in October 2007. The chapter identifies challenges to and opportunities for improving human well-being through analyses of the vulnerability of human-environment systems to environmental and socio-economic change.
Mode-3 Workshop
In March 2008 about 20 scientists from all over Europe gathered for an expert workshop under the title of "Bridging Sustainability and Quality of Life". The workshop focused on the concepts of sustainable development, well-being, life styles, needs and emotions, capabilities, and multi criteria analysis. A framework and concepts for first projects partly starting this year were developed.
Degrowth Conference
At the end of April 140 scientists from over 30 countries and all continents met for the first time to explicitly discuss the topic of "degrowth" (see www.degrowth.net), implying further development but no more growth.
The conference’s bottom line: there is no way around degrowth! It will either "hit" us in the form of a deep economic crisis, or we can take the chance of a well-designed transition to a form of development "beyond the limits of growth". Such a transition asks for a shift in personal views and political framework conditions for economic, social, environmental and financial politics.
Today, the ever same arguments are presented to justify economic growth:
- growth increases our material wealth and thus our quality of lives;
- growth creates jobs;
- growth mitigates conflicts of distribution (in a society and on a global level);
- growth facilitates the financing of national tasks;
- growth finances environmental protection.
All these arguments face plausibel counter arguments, either in a way that the arguments for growth are wrong (e.g., growth causes more and more resource use and thus does not go along with environmental protection), or in a way that there are better alternatives (e.g., the re-distribution of work also creates jobs).
Glocalist article (July 2008 issue)
In the July issue of the Glocalist Magazine an article by Fritz Hinterberger will be published: "Grenzen des Wachstums als die Herausforderung gesellschaftlichen und unternehmerischen Handelns" ("Limits to Growth as the Challenge for Social and Economic Actions").
Conference "Zukunft:Lebensqualität" ("Future:Quality of Life")
In early May the conference "Zukunft:Lebensqualität" took place in Salzburg. Together with the Ministery of Life SERI was involved in the conference organization. The results are available on www.fhs-forschung.at
Governance & Wellbeing (2006)
In the course of the revision of the European Sustainability Strategy SERI and Karuna Consult set up a background paper delivering new information about the concept of well-being and its connections to long-term goals within the sustainability strategy. This document was used as a content-related input of a focus group dealing with the issue of "Well-being and Governance" (organized by the Ministry of Life and SERI).
SERI Book (2007)
In our SERI book "How much more can our life take?" we describe the current situation of the planet earth and potential options of action on the way to a sustainable development. In this respect, concepts like quality of life, life balance and well-being play a central role.
NÖ-Mitte (2006-2007)
For and in cooperation with the region Niederösterreich-Mitte (Lower Austria) SERI elaborated on questions about a future strategy and its relation to global megatrends. The project supported the region's self-responsibility and self-competence and shall enable single persons to actively be part of realization projects and to work on their own developmental options. Topics like life balance and quality of life were focal points in this project.
www.nachhaltigkeit.at (March 2005)
The topic of the month 3/2005 created by SERI and Harald Hutterer (Karuna Consult) was dedicated to of life quality and sustainability and provides a comprehensive overview of concepts, theories and definitions, as well as guest commentaries by persons of various backgrounds.
* www.statistik.at
** http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/06/st10/st10917.en06.pdf
This "Highlight" was created by SERI researchers Johannes Frühmann, Lisa Bohunovsky, Fritz Hinterberger, Ines Omann and Andreas Teufel.
Picture source: © Lea M./Pixelio
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