Quality of Life

An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Shruti Tripathi, Rashmi Rai, Ingrid Van Rompay-Bartels

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000422269
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Theory
• Index: Economics

Quality of Life: An Interdisciplinary Perspective presents the Quality of Life using a contemporary and interdisciplinary approach. Various socio-cultural, spiritual, technological, and human factors aspects, which have an immense bearing on our lives, are an integral part of this book.

This book highlights cultural differences in terms of Quality of Life. It recognizes the presence of cultural differences resulting from the social status attributed to an individual's age, gender, class, race, and ethnicity. It can be used as a guide in the field of global well-being and for future research. It presents clues to complex problems and empirical materials, and attempts to bring out a more comprehensive picture of global and contemporary Quality of Life and well-being. This book can also fill a gap in teaching and research.

Those who will find this book useful are researchers, academicians, practitioners, and students of management, behavioral science, human factors, psychology, health economics, sociology, public health, and politics.

1 Is the Human Development Index Still Appropriate for the Assessment of Quality of Life?

Adrian Heng Tsai Tan

Curtin University

Contents

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Methodology

1.3 Quality of Life: What Is It?

1.4 About Human Development

1.5 Is the HDI Still Relevant?

1.6 Opportunities for Future Research and Development of the HDI

1.7 Conclusions

References

1.1 Introduction

The Human Development Index (HDI) has been widely accepted as a measure of quality of life for people living in a country (Biggeri and Mauro 2018; Hickel 2020). Developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the intent of the HDI was to assess the development of a country through the lens of human capability development and potential: an alternative to the reliance of economic growth in determining country development (Sagar and Najam 1998; UNDP 2010). The HDI, which has ubiquitously focused on three key dimensions, namely health and life expectancy, education attainment and standard of living, has served as a proxy for the determination of quality of life in a country (McGillivray 1991; UNDP 2010, 2019).

A few decades ago, particularly since the late 20th century when many countries, especially in Asia, were on the road to development through rapid industrialization, the HDI in its current form to assess country development made utilitarian sense to uplift countries above the poverty line. For example, countries and territories such as Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, China, South Korea and Malaysia have recorded rapid rise in their HDI between 1990 and 2018 (UNDP 2018). These countries had reaped the benefits of the HDI to develop national policies which advanced their education, healthcare and economic systems to enhance human capability and potential of its citizens.

While the HDI has been an effective tool that has helped uplift countries to achieve basic standards of living—thus enabling its people to chart living progression on the basis of improvement in basic eudaemonic human development factors—the UNDP’s latest 2019 Human Development Report (UNDP 2019) acknowledges deficiencies in the existing HDI algorithm and cites rising new-generation societal inequalities amid general improvements in HDI around the world. The rise of new-generation societal inequalities is partly due to the emergence of a variety of global mega trends—such as globalization, political upheavals, widening income gaps, climate change, shifts in cultural norms and values, disruptive technologies and epidemics due to emergence of new diseases and viruses—which influence well-being and the quality of life. Many researchers (Dasgupta and Weale 1992; Osberg and Sharpe 2005) have also argued against the use of the HDI—which has Gross National Income (GNI) per capita as an element in the index making it skewed towards a socioeconomic sphere of life—as an adequate measure of quality of life and consequently social well-being. While the GNI per capita and standard of living may be high, the quality of life may be low (Berenger and Verdier-Chouchane 2007).

The HDI appears in need of review and update so that it remains a sustainable system of human development which is adaptable with emerging global mega trends of disruption. Hence, it is not mere coincidence that the UNDP has highlighted the need for a more ecological and inclusive version of human development: one that pushes the potential to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UNDP 2019). Interestingly, the SDGs that have been developed and adopted by member states of the United Nations in 2015 could serve as a driver of change, providing support for a revised HDI. This is because the SDGs as an integrated whole emphasize a vision to achieve inclusive development by uplifting human development through a balancing of social, economic and environmental dimensions of development (Gupta and Vegelin 2016; Hák et al. 2016; UNDP 2019): a philosophy that strongly resembles the original intention of human development based on the human capability approach (Sen 1999; Gasper 2002).

The need for review and update of the HDI also arises because of a potentially paradoxical relationship between HDI and quality of life. While HDIs may be high in a country, its citizens may not be experiencing a desirable quality of life due to the emergence of the variety of global mega trends highlighted earlier. In addition, global disruptive situations—and to a certain extent globalization—have caused high social stresses resulting from increased pressures of competition among people within a limited economic pie, a widening income gap, and the emergence of a digital divide (UNDP 2019). Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 at the time of writing this chapter has demonstrated how disruption in the form of a global health crisis can degenerate the way of life of citizens in a country, impacting national as well as individual well-being (UNDP 2020). Government measures both at the national and at the international level to mitigate the spread of the virus through a populace have partly contributed to such degeneration in the way of life of citizens around the world (Restubog et al. 2020). For instance, the lockdowns implemented in many countries have promoted isolation and hindered—although for valid reasons—human interaction, socialization and mobility, which are examples of contributing factors to social well-being of humanity (Nicola et al. 2020). In view of the uncertain and volatile situations just highlighted, the concepts of human development and quality of life require revisiting.

This chapter addresses the appropriateness of the HDI as a measure of quality of life, underpinned by theoretical foundations of quality of life and human development. This chapter is organized as follows. Firstly, the concepts of quality of life and human development are reviewed and discussed. Secondly, academic and practical perspectives of the HDI are critically analysed in relations to the review of the two aforementioned concepts to ascertain whether the current form of the HDI continues to be functionally appropriate as an assessment of quality of life. The analysis draws on secondary information available based on existential discussions in the academic research literature as well as reports of international organizations such as the United Nations and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Finally, propositions and a conceptual model are developed and discussed to highlight promising opportunities and directions for future research and development of the HDI.

1.2 Methodology

With the aim of addressing whether the HDI remains as an appropriate measure of quality of life and to propose a direction for future research and development in the field, a narrative review (Cronin et al. 2008) was adopted as the approach for performing a review and synthesis of the literature to address the contentious and complex research question. Several approaches for conducting a literature review of research studies and reports are available (Snyder 2019); however, a narrative approach was selected as the methodology that is most suited to interpret and critique existential studies on quality of life, human development and the HDI towards an engagement in theory development (Baumeister and Leary 1997). This is because as Sniltsveit et al. (2012, 414) suggests, “narrative reviews have become increasingly systematic, their methods have diversified and the terms to describe them have proliferated”. In addition, “the emphasis on thinking and interpretation in narrative review” (Greenhalgh et al. 2018, 3) supports the aim to develop authoritative arguments to shape future research and development on quality of life, human development and the HDI.

In this research, various literature published between 1978 and 2020 were reviewed. The time period selected is justifiable since there is no definitive period of time over which a review of literature should be conducted; in addition, the body of literature for review is dependent on relevant studies that address the subject of interest (Cronin et al. 2008). With the intent to develop fresh and contemporary insights for future research and development of the HDI based on the evolution of theory development and existential controversies (Baumeister and Leary 1997), the narrative review was performed by providing a historical account, interpretation and critique of the development of two key concepts—quality of life and human development—which are relevant to the study of the HDI. We also integrated our understanding of quality of life and human development to critically analyse the literature which argue for and against the HDI within the specified time period. Both EBSCOhost and Google Scholar were the databases used in the search for academic literature. Quality of life, human development and human development index were the keywords used to query the databases. In addition, we also reviewed the reports that are available on the websites of the UNDP and OECD.

1.3 Quality of Life: What Is it?

The concept of quality of life ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Editors
• Contributors
• Chapter 1 Is the Human Development Index Still Appropriate for the Assessment of Quality of Life?
• Chapter 2 Workers’ Well-Being and Workplace Environment: Crossed Case Studies of Workplaces in Italy, Greece and Portugal
• Chapter 3 Quality of Life in Nursing Homes: A European Approach for Improvement
• Chapter 4 International Students’ Well-Being Achievements through the Lens of the Capability Approach: A Case Study
• Chapter 5 Improving Quality of Life through Global Citizenship Education (GCED)
• Chapter 6 Technological Innovation for Environmental Sustainability and Quality of Life
• Chapter 7 Key Factors and Influencers Determining Work-Life Balance and Their Implications on Quality of Life
• Chapter 8 Smart Cities and Their Role in Enhancing Quality of Life
• Chapter 9 Integrating Human Well-Being and Quality of Life Derived from Nature-Based Livelihoods in Modern Economy
• Chapter 10 Nurturing Resilience and Quality of Life: A Blue Economy Approach
• Chapter 11 Spatial Assessment of Quality of Life Using Composite Index: A Case of Kerala, India
• Index