INSPIRE
Reviews
Publication Reviews
Population Issues and Social Indicators of Well-being by Frank M. Andrews.
Abstract: Relating demographer’s measures of various population characteristics (size, growth/decline, density, age/sex structures, migration, et cetera) to measures of well-being recently developed within the social indicators movement promises to provide new knowledge about the linkage of population and well-being that can enhance decision making about important population issues.
A conceptual schema is presented that suggests specific relationships to examine at various levels of aggregation, that helps to classify research already done in this area, and that helps to identify "holes" in the knowledge base. Some special methodological features of research in this area suggest considerable time and care will be required to produce dependable new knowledge. These include: (a) the inherent multilevel nature of the relationships (involving properties of individuals and collectivities); (b) the slow rate at which population characteristics change; (c) the absence of much good well-being data from the past; and (d) the limited nature of the collectivities for which population data are available.
This article is a revised version of a paper presented to the 1981 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America.
Further information: http://www.springerlink.com/content/q138g136g8x45451/?p=2c7b4abcf727405fb8ddb28efdbaec5a&pi=1
Website Reviews
Community accounts Website
Community Accounts is a Canadian innovative information system providing users at all levels with a single, comprehensive and reliable source of community, regional, and provincial data. It is a public-wide, online data retrieval system for locating, sharing and exchanging information related to the province and its people.
This innovative system allows users to custom generate a limitless number of tables and illustrative graphics on key social and economic indicators organized by geography and data topic within ten distinct accounts: Household Spending, Income, Social, Health, Labour Market, Production, Demographics, Education, Resource/Wealth and Environment. An additional account, termed Well-Being, allows users to compile indicators from each of the above domains to develop a better understanding of the factors that determine the status and progress of their communities and regions.
This website is located at: http://www.communityaccounts.ca/communityaccounts/onlinedata/getdata.asp
Knowledge Base – Measuring Progress around the World
The Knowledge Base website contains hundreds of documents on measures of progress around the World (or sustainability, wellbeing or quality of life; all terms closely linked to progress). The Knowledge Base has been created in order to assist governmental and non-governmental organisations in the development of their system of indicators.
Knowledge Base Version 2 will be available soon, allowing multidimensional selections; with summaries, search tools, list of indicators and more.
This website is located at: http://www.oecd.org/document/50/0,2340,en_21571361_31938349_36043378_1_1_1_1,00.html
The Canadian Index of Wellbeing: Measuring What Matters
The Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) seeks to provide Canadians with a clear, valid, and regular accounting of the things that matter to them and the genuine progress of Canada. The CIW is being developed as a tool to account honestly and accurately for changes in our human, social, economic and natural wealth through a new index that can best capture the full range of factors that determine wellbeing in Canada.
Through the CIW the Atkinson Foundation wants to help foster a common vision for the future of Canada, one that can be used as a basis for improving health and wellbeing outcomes that matter to Canadians.
This website is located at: http://www.atkinsonfoundation.ca/ciw/
Australian Centre of Quality of Life: International Wellbeing Group
Beginning in November 2001, an international collaborative network has gradually assembled with the aim of developing a brief, standard Index to measure population subjective wellbeing. The International Wellbeing Group currently involves researchers from a number of countries.
Each researcher intends to trial the Index in their own country. Moreover, Group members are agreed that, to whatever extent possible, the same form of the Index will be used. It is not, however, envisaged that the Index will remain unchanged over time. Instead, an initial iteration of the Index has been agreed, and a key concept underpinning this project is that it will undergo controlled evolution as theory and empirical data are brought to bear on its composition. To this end there is an active e-forum that discusses the composition of the Index as data are progressively collected and analysed and published on the website.
This website is located at: http://acqol.deakin.edu.au/index.htm
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