The CSIRO in Australia has just released an edited volume:
Measuring progress: Is life getting better (1998: CSIRO Publishing)
Contributions include:
Citizenship and progress (Mike Salvaris).
Measuring changes in economic welfare: The genuine progress indicator for
Australia (Clive Hamilton).
Measures of economic activity and welfare: The uses and abuses of GDP
(Dowrick & Quiggin)
Income, standards of living and quality of life: Preliminary findings from
the middle Australia study (Michael Pusey)
Sections include:
Progress and its measurement
Well-being and quality of life
Work, poverty and income
The natural environment
Other contributors include Ian Lowe and Eva Cox.
The discussions, findings, and recommendations are well worth reading for
those interested in alternative indicators of societal well-being.
Phil Graham
>I agree with Michael Halperns view of the 'well being' consideration. I
>have read similar figures, including some from Larry Elliot, which indicate
>in no small terms that although wealth in the West has increased
>astonomically in the last 30 years, general happiness and well being
>have decreased. I ask myself whether this economic prosperity has
>brought a moral/spiritual void.
>
>Moreover in response to his comment on the gold standards of success I
>recently attended a debate on social exclusion and how to help those on
>the fringes of society back into work, where John Bird, one of the
>founders of the Big Issue spoke. An important question which arose
>from this was can the badge of citizenship simply be measured in terms
>of work? This raises greater questions about human purpose which
>would not be for here.
>
>Hospital waiting lists and class sizes are another example of our
>standards of success. Both are key elements in the present
>Governments plans but are they the right indicators? Some evidence
>seems to suggest the answer is no. A decrease in waiting lists does not
>necessarily mean more people are receiving health care; people can be
>taken off lists for administrative reseasons amongst other things.
>Likewise smaller class sizes do not necessarily mean a better quality of
>teaching. There are numerous other factors not least the competence of
>the teacher or the socio-economic background of the children.These
>pledges are simply indicators which do not properly reflect the
>functionality of the health service or the education system. We need to
>accept indicators for what they are or do we live in a world of
>conjecture...
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>
Phil Graham
pw.graham@student.qut.edu.au
Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/8314/index.html
Motto for a brave new world:
ABSOLUTEM OBSOLETUM –If it works, it's out of date (Stafford Beer, 1981)
Stop the MAI http://www.avid.net.au/stopmai/
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Posted to 3way, a service of Nexus. http://www.netnexus.org/
Hosting and email provided by new media consultants On-Line Publishing